Start Up Your EX Gear!
by UpbeatButNegative
Summary: "He may be the fastest creature on the ground, but in the air, with me and my Extreme Gear, he's just a joke!" Thanks to the appearance of a group called the Babylon Rogues, new competition has sparked for Sonic and friends. In a new kind of racing tournament, the stakes are high (especially when the grand prize is all seven Chaos Emeralds!) and those who reach may never catch...
1. Prologue

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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**-Prologue: New Competition-**

**High in the Sky...**

The moon's shine pierced the cluster of clouds as the tall mountains stood frozen. A giant, red airship flew across the night sky as its propellers whirled. Excluding the constant buzzing noise it produced outside, the night was a peaceful one. What could possibly ruin it? A little pod of an aircraft flew closely, minuscule compared to the giant airship. Travelers, perhaps?

No. This was much more. And it all started with a young, emerald green hawk and his team.

Inside the captain's room of the airship, Jet the Hawk sat on his blue leather chair, his yellow tinted goggles resting on his forehead and a peculiar crystal box, with a bright glow in it, resting in his hand. He could only stare at the shining box with his blue eyes, for it contained many secrets unknown to him. All Jet could remember was that it was given to him by his father, who only told him that it could unlock great treasures. But how? Why? Was there more to the box than meets the eye? Unfortunately for Jet, tonight was just another night of pondering.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard. Jet turned to the door.

"Hey, boss!"

"Wha..?" The footsteps grew louder. The door burst open, revealing a large, gray albatross by the name of Storm, whose goggles just fit his forehead. Storm the Albatross stumbled in the captain's room, making Jet yelp, drop the crystal box on the table and drop himself on the floor.

Slamming the table with his rather large, gloved hands, Storm alerted the boss, "We've got some major trouble!" making the box jump with every slam on the wooden piece of furniture.

"Storm! At least learn to knock before entering a room!" a purple swallow scolded him. With her bandana on her head and her head feathers flowing down her back, Wave the Swallow placed one gloved hand on the door as she leaned towards it. Storm glanced at her, then looked back at the crystal box.

"What's this?" he asked Jet, picking it up. "Ooh... Is this..."

"Yeah..." Jet responded, picking himself up from the floor. "That's when I took over things for my father."

"So, is this the key to the fabled Babylon Garden?" Wave asked, walking into the room.

"I wonder..." Storm mused. "Could it be true? Could our ancestors have left behind hidden treasures just waiting to be discovered?" Jet nodded a little with a smirk, though he wasn't quite sure himself. Wave slowly lifted up her hand, ready to take the box from Storm and inspect it herself, but Storm raised it higher, making it so Wave couldn't reach it. "Uh uh!" he sounded. "If you get your greasy little hands on it, you'll probably use it in some crazy experiment or something!"

"Jeez, Storm! I only want a look!" Wave groaned.

"You always say you only want this or that," Storm reminded her, while Jet decided to take his seat. He often became irritated when his teammates argued with each other. This time was no exception. "Remember the teachings of our ancestors. 'Be careful what you ask for because in the end, you'll only get three true wishes.' Also-"

"Oh, be quiet!" Jet snapped, grasping Storm and Wave's attention. "Why'd you burst in here anyway, Storm?"

"Well, uh..." the albatross placed the box back down and took a moment to regain his answer. "An... egghead? Egg salad? No... Professor Pickle? Uh-"

"Someone called Dr Eggman wants to speak to you," Wave told Jet, interrupting her bigger friend.

"He told me that he had an interesting proposition for you, "Storm added, holding the swallow's head away.

"Stop interrupting!" Wave demanded, pushing Storm by his stomach. "Knock it off!" After a staredown that lasted a second, the two turned away from each other with their arms crossed. Jet sighed.

"Ahem. Am I interrupting anything?" came the voice of a rather rotund guest. His red military jacket and abnormally wide mustache made him an infamous figure to the world. He was the one Wave referred to as ' Dr Eggman'.

"So then, I heard you wanted to see me?" Jet said to him.

"Are you Jet, the leader of the legendary Babylon Rogues?" The hawk nodded. "Your reputation precedes you. I've heard so much about your infamous group!" A grin pulled along Eggman's face.

"Enough!" Jet ordered. "What do you want?"

"I heard a rumor, a rumor that you have the key to Babylon Garden. Could this be true?" Storm, noticing the crystal box Eggman referred to, hastily blocked it from the doctor's view as he whistled a little tune.

"Huh? What's this key?" Jet asked, interested.

"Ho ho ho ho! Really now, you don't have to be so distrusting," Eggman chuckled. Walking over to Jet, he said, "Were you not aware of this? Well, I'd imagine not, yet. The key to Babylon Garden is..." The infamous 'scientific genius' whispered the rest to the green hawk, who couldn't help but grin to what he just learned.

"Hmm, so let me get this straight," Jet spoke. "We just need to collect these seven Chaos Emeralds, right?" To Eggman's nod, Jet replied, "Sounds easy!"

"You really think so, eh?" Eggman smirked.

"What do you mean?" Jet grunted, his own grin disappearing. "Are you saying that the Babylon Rogues aren't capable of stealing some puny emeralds?"

"N-No, of course not," Eggman assured him, fiddling with something on his wrist. "But... Have you seen these characters before?" From his wrist device, a display shot out in front of the Babylon Rogues. An array of figures appeared on the display, all with the names of them and a one line long description for each of them. Jet eyed these figures, only to find disappointment in the majority of them. He didn't care for a so called 'Ultimate Life Form', nor did he take interest in the 'mechanical genius of a fox'. The 'Master Emerald' sounded promising, but the seven smaller emeralds were more important. There was one line which stood out to Jet, however.

"'The fastest thing alive', huh?"

"I've had many dreadful encounters with them in the past, especially the blue pest you seem to be intrigued by," Eggman said.

"Hmph. He may be the fastest creature on the ground," Jet began to sneer. "But in the air, with me and my Extreme Gear, he's just a joke!" A rather eccentric cackle rang in the airship.

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**In Future City...**

Not only did the moon brighten up the place, but the array of city lights made Future City quite a sight. While most of the citizens partied away or drove around, a handful of them took in the fresh air and walked along the evergreen parks. The classic combo of heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower and Knuckles the Echidna, also took a foot route. However, they weren't just enjoying the night life (though it seemed like a good idea to, considering Eggman hadn't launched any new schemes in a while!). Instead, they were on a hunt, a hunt for the Chaos Emeralds. They had four already, so they were in good shape for whatever was to come (that is, if something was to come).

"Tell me. Why are we looking for them again?" Knuckles grumbled, his arm crossed.

"If we find the Emeralds now, it will save time in the long run," Tails reminded him. "If Eggman strikes, we'll already have the Emeralds to stop his plans."

Sonic said nothing, though he wished to do something more interesting, too. However, his buddy did have a point. Said fox was holding one of his little contraptions in his hand. It was an Emerald Detector and it showed a bright dot near the middle of the screen, indicating another Emerald.

"It looks like the signal's coming from around here," Tails told his friends. At that moment, a circle stretched out from the dot, with the sign 'Jamming Signal' displayed. "Hmm... That's really weird," Tails said.

At that moment, the ear piercing sound of breaking glass rang in everyone's ears!

Team Sonic turned around to find the source of it. Three silhouettes seemed to be descending to the ground from a building, one of which was holding a gem. A Chaos Emerald!

"What's that!?" Knuckles spoke up.

"Sonic! The Emerald's over there!" Tails warned his surrogate brother, pointing to the front figure. All three of them landed on the road and took off on their boards in colored streaks.

"Alright! Now we're talking!" Sonic grinned before signaling his friends to move out. Sonic used his trademark speed to catch up with the thieves, while Tails and Knuckles followed close behind, maneuvering past the night's traffic. Police cars were immediately called in after the windows crashed, so Team Sonic and the thieves have to swerve past all of them, too.

Sonic sped ahead of the thieves in a blue blur, the green hawk taking a glance at it. After Sonic stopped in front of them, he got into a fighting position. However, the same rogue who glanced at the blue hedgehog crouched down and leaped above him. Sonic gasped slightly, but there was no time to waste with that thief. He chased after him, while Knuckles rushed in to intercept the biggest rogue. The echidna swung his fist at him, knocking him off his board and forcing him to hitch a ride with the last member of the rogue trio. Tails caught up and noticed a peculiar mark on the board on the road. Before he could analyze it further, Sonic threw it upwards, lunged for it and took a ride on it, dashing away with a streak of gray shooting from its back.

Sonic, having had experience with boarding (whether it be snowboarding on a mountain or fleeing from the cops in a city), was able to control himself with the contraption he stood on, but somehow, it felt... different. Sure, it was essentially a skateboard without wheels, but it was a board nevertheless, right? The hedgehog had no time to ponder on that, though. He needed to catch up with the apparent leader behind the thieving and get back the Chaos Emerald!

Swiftly and with some finesse, Sonic swerved past the incoming, outgoing and obstructing traffic, dodging police cars as he did so. Though he passed the big guy and only girl, there was that last rogue to catch up with. The boards knocked into each other, leaving Sonic and the mystery marauder off balance, though they both regained it. The hedgehog leaned forward, making the board propel forward with him, and swerved around his opponent quite stylishly.

"Huh, not bad," the bird smirked. Sonic turned around, to find one problem. He wasn't there!

"What the heck?" He looked up, not thinking that the guy would be there, but he was! The silhouette blocked a portion of the moon like an eclipse, but that was all the hedgehog saw before a sudden blast of turbulence blew Sonic off the board and onto the ground.

"Hmph! So, you're supposed to be the fastest thing alive? What a joke!" Sonic heard the rogue sneer before he, along with his two bumbling teammates, took off (but not before the big guy stretched his arm out for his own board).

Sonic picked himself up from the road, while Tails and Knuckles caught up with him. He took a glance at them before turning back to where the mysterious trio just left the scene.

"Huh, new competition!"

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Hi there! I'm UpbeatButNegative and welcome to my novelization of Sonic Riders! I wrote it on an older account of mine, but because I wanted a fresh start after being gone for so long, I decided to rewrite and reupload it.

Sonic Riders... It's a game that has quite a steep learning curve, especially when compared to the sequel, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad game. It's no Mario Kart, but I find myself coming back to Sonic Riders every now and then. I hope that I've done the game justice here, but that's up to you to decide.

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	2. Chapter 1

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_RoTheBomb_' for adding this story to their alerts and '_ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

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Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of the Prologue: Glad that I made a good first impression on you! And yes, we know what will happen. However, throughout this story, you should notice that I make small changes to suit my tastes and make this story different from the actual game.

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**-Chapter 1: Eggman Again!-**

**The Next Day...**

After Sonic's defeat to those rogues, he and his friends took a break from Chaos Emerald hunting for the night and decided to rest up. The next morning, they took a trip to the center of the city.

"I can't seem to get a signal on the Emerald detector for more Emeralds," Tails said to Knuckles and Sonic as they questioned the purpose of the detour. "Perhaps we'll get some information on them at the center of the city."

While Future City looked spectacular at night, it had its charm in broad daylight. All over the city were flashy billboards and advertisements. Ever since the robbery last night, reparations for the damaged building were being made, so citizens were advised to stay away from the reconstruction site. Instead, they took up the rest of the city in the hustle and bustle of getting to work. The horns of cars were honked and conversations rang in the air as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles made their way to the center of the city. Suddenly, interrupting the busy lifestyle of Future City's citizens was a rather infamous evil chuckle. Sonic and friends turned to one of the giant video screens to see...

"Eggman!"

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome everyone! I hope you're all ready for a show because we've got an exciting event just for you!" the doctor announced, following up with one of his infamous 'ho ho ho's. "Since you all seem so bored, I've put together a little extra something to spice things up: the 'EX World Grand Prix'! Not just any racing tournament, but a racing tournament with..." A peculiar looking board, one Sonic gasped at because of its familiarity, was brought out and held out in front of the screen. "Extreme Gear! Don't have one? Then call this number and order your very own!"

The phone number '1-800-369-EGGY-4-LIFE' appeared on screen, along with a list of prices. These figures appeared in all of the billboards in Future City and remained there as Eggman continued to speak.

"Anyway, these races are no holds barred. All contestants must only pay a simple entry fee of one Chaos Emerald and the winner takes them all! Let's see who among you dares to meet this challenge!" The screen shut off after the announcement.

"I don't buy this. Just what is that guy up to this time?" Knuckles growled. What made the echidna jump was another shot of Eggman's face on screen.

"But wait, there's more!" old Egghead announced. "Before I forget, the preliminary rounds start tomorrow, so get ordering and get practicing! Also, let me introduce you to our current contestants! These players are hot, the best I could find!" Three blue tinted mugshots, along with their respective full body shots, appeared on screen, all of which Sonic recognized!

"Hey! That's...!" he gasped as he noticed the green hawk. After about fifteen seconds, the screen shut off again. Sonic then had a smirk on his face. "The EX World Grand Prix, huh?" His friends turned to him. "Tails, start making some orders! We're gonna enter that tournament and win those Emeralds! Let's do this!"

Orders for the boards known as Extreme Gears flew in like bees attracted to honey (in other words, really fast!) and they arrived at equal speed. In time, everyone was out and about, riding their Gears wherever they went. As for Team Sonic, they seemed pretty disappointed with how their gear looked. Well, Sonic and Knuckles were, anyway.

"This is the 'extreme' factor?" the hedgehog sighed, laying his eyes on a plain blue board.

"This thing doesn't look like it can even hold a guy up!" Knuckles added, tossing aside his run of the mill orange board.

"Hmm..." As Tails further inspected his own yellow board, as well as his friends', an idea came and developed in his genius mind. "Don't worry, guys! I'll customize these things for you!"

"Huh? You sure you know what you're doing?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm not so sure of the technology Extreme Gear use, I'm afraid. But I'll see what I can do."

"Alright. We'll leave it to you, Tails," Sonic smiled.

Tails headed for home to fix up the boards, while his friends split up and explored the city. After all, there was quite a lot to do in Future City, aside from nearly getting run over by passersby. As for the eight year old genius, it took him quite some time for him to learn how Extreme Gear worked. After all, what he was witnessing was very advanced technology, even for him. However, as he grew accustomed to it, Tails found that customizing the Gear didn't take as long as he expected. By applying what he knew of other contraptions, he was able to modify his own and his friends' Gear to suit their needs.

It was the late afternoon when Sonic and Knuckles visited Tails to see how things were holding up for him. The fox, ecstatic to see their reactions to the modifications, immediately ushered them in and led them to their Gears, which were proudly propped up for display for such an occasion. What Tails' friends laid eyes on was quite a piece of work.

"Whew! You really outdid yourself this time, Tails!" Knuckles grinned, reaching over to hold his new board. The 'Red Rock' was a red skateboard shaped Gear, fitted with a silver footing plate on a yellow plate with black stripes across it. It mirrored its owner's power and durability, for it was made with some of the tougher metals around to be able to take more abuse than other Gears.

"I never thought I'd agree with Knuckles, but this is sweet, Tails!" Sonic grinned also. His sleek Gear, the 'Blue Star', was blue with a yellow stripe around a metal plate. It was only natural for Sonic, 'the fastest thing alive', to be equipped with a Gear that could reach high top speeds to blow ahead of the competition. The board had a slightly pointed end, which reduced air resistance.

"Ha ha. Thanks, guys. I worked really hard on it," Tails chuckled, rubbing the tip of his nose slightly. His surfboard shaped 'Yellow Tail' Gear was orangish yellow in color and had a solid yellow stripe around a metal plate. While it lacked in sturdiness, it made up for it with the ability for turn very accurately and accelerate quickly, thanks to being a relatively light Gear.

As Sonic and Knuckles inspected their Gears further, Tails glanced over to his clock to check the time, then turned to the darkening sky.

"Aw, man. There's not enough time for us to practice riding," he sighed.

"Oh, c'mon, Tails. There's nothing like riding at this time!" Sonic replied nonchalantly. "Loads of people will be around!"

"Sonic, it'll get dark," Tails reminded him. "And who knows what'll happen in the dark?"

"You've been through worse," Knuckles stated. "Besides, we won't stay out too long." He began to nudge Sonic. "Right, Sonic?" To this, said hedgehog grinned sheepishly.

Tails sighed once more. However, after taking a look at the three boards, then his friends, another thought occurred to him as a smile appeared on his face. "Hmm... I guess it wouldn't hurt to dedicate some time to finally testing these babies out."

"Great!" Tails' surrogate brother grinned, slapping him on the back. "Let's get going!"

Once again, the three friends were out and about in Future City at night. The scenery flickered and flashed before their eyes, for not only were the city lights and streetlights on, but the many thrust trails from a variety of Extreme Gears streamed and crisscrossed about, appearing as luminous ribbons on the ground. In time, most of the citizens got the basics of riding Extreme Gear down and were either resting up for the preliminaries, or riding around some more for the sake of it. Of course, they had to sign up for the tournament in Future City's 'Sign Up Square'. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were reminded of this by a passerby and headed for the square before honing what little skill they had on their Gears.

Sonic rode one of these kinds of boards just last night, so he was able to teach Tails and Knuckles about how it felt and what he did to move around in it. After that, they were on their own, but not before agreeing to meet back at the Sign Up Square an hour later. As for their individual practice sessions, Sonic was eventually able to perform basic tricks off the city's small ramps, while Tails focused on controlling his cornering on his Gear and Knuckles had no idea what he was doing (though with some of Tails' help, he managed to at least get around on the thing!).

However, little did Team Sonic know it, three silhouettes could be seen standing on top of a nearby hill. Why were they there? Who knew? One was for sure, though; those three observed every move Sonic, Tails and Knuckles made.

"Hah! If that's what the 'fastest thing alive' can do, collecting these Emeralds will be a cinch!" one of them cackled.

"He'll never be as good as you, boss," the largest of the three added.

"Just remember, guys. Blow through the preliminaries and annihilate the lucky ones who make it through!" the third one reminded the other two. "This should be easy, considering how much I've tuned our Gears, Jet."

"Hmph. I don't need you to tell me that much, Wave," Jet told her. "We're the Babylon Rogues! We've taken treasures far more precious than these 'Chaos Emeralds' Eggman was talking about!"

"Uh, about that..." the big guy, Storm, spoke up once again. "Is it just me, or is there something fishy about this Eggman guy?"

"Just chill, Storm," Jet smirked. "We'll just take his advice and get those Emeralds. Nothing any of us can't handle, right?"

"I guess so, but-"

"Besides, what could Eggman possibly have up his sleeve? He may not be as clever as he looks, but even he should know that no one tricks the Babylon Rogues and gets away with it!"

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Originally, after Eggman's broadcast, I was going to jump straight into the race. However, it would seem like too sudden of a transition, so that's why today's chapter was some filler! Next time, the first race (first in the Heroes story, but second chronologically!) will take place.

For those who are wondering, I'll try to update this fic at least once every weekend. If I can, I'll squeeze in more updates, but don't hold your breath on it. Holding your breath is bad!

Anyway, thanks for reading, guys. If you like what you saw today, then stay tuned for more!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	3. Chapter 2

******I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_Enigmatic Porcupine_' for adding this story to their alerts.

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Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 1: Well, thanks! It makes me happy to know that you're happy with this fic. I hope that you, and all my other readers, enjoy this next chapter.

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 1: So you like my filler... What does it taste like? XD

Anyway, about 'sucking at concrit', what would you do if you were to write this? What aspects would you change to better suit you?

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**-Chapter 2: Kickstarting The Competition-**

**The Next Day...**

"All participants of the fifth preliminary round, please report to the city's starting gate to begin the race."

Four other preliminary rounds took place beforehand and two more were to take place afterwards. Knuckles, Tails and all but one of the three rogues from a few days ago won the rounds they competed in and qualified for the actual tournament. It was Sonic's turn to compete for his position, so with the Blue Star in hand, the hedgehog made his way to the designated location.

The noon sky loomed over the whole of Future City, as well as its starting gate. The gate itself was essentially two futuristic looking pillars, projecting a 'START' sign in between them. Below it was the orange starting line, with stripes of black crossing it. As Sonic arrived at the scene, he observed the looks on the other seven competitors' faces. Their eyes were filled with a mix of determination to win and fear of defeat. Vows were made solemnly, legs shook slightly and all eight competitors turned to the track. With Sonic finally present, the race could begin.

The race's announcer and judge, Omochao, floated by the starting gate. Omochao, a blue robotic Chao with a yellow wind up key on his head, held a microphone in one hand and a camera on the other. Other cameras were set across the entire race track to get specific close up shots, but Omochao played the role of the 'eyes in the sky'. While he was a robot, he was just as excited for the race to begin as the competitors, if not more. In this excitement, he flew back and forth along the starting line, taking glances at the racers and the chrome road ahead of them. He couldn't help but squeal (well, the racers thought it was a squeal, anyway).

"Alright, folks. The rules are simple," he finally declared after taking a moment to calm down. "Whoever finishes three laps of this track first will win the preliminary round. Any questions?" No one put up their hand, for they knew the rules already. "Okay, then, good luck out there! Take your marks..."

As the eight racers formed a line behind the starting line, they clutched their Extreme Gears. Electricity shot out from the gate's pillars, blocking the track from the racers' sights.

"Three..."

They all took running start positions.

"Two..."

They made their running start.

"One..."

They were ready to dash out!

"Go!"

The electric field disappeared and all eight racers shot out of the starting line.

They sped down a chrome slope and rose along the upcoming hill, only to be greeted with a bright orange ramp. Nearly all of the racers merely sped over it before gravity pulled them back onto the track. As such, they made poor landings and suffered minor speed losses. Up in the sky, they saw Sonic performing a clockwise turn, the Blue Star's thrust trails spinning along with it. Lining up the board parallel to the track, Sonic landed perfectly and gained a small, temporary speed boost, which aided him in blowing past his opponents.

Speeding down along the road and into a transparent tunnel, the blue hedgehog caught sight of an amber rail with a blue glow in front of it. Experience told him to jump onto it and experience the results, so he did just that. Sonic grinded on the rail, while keeping his balance on the Blue Star. Sparks flew from the board as he shifted his weight over to the right, to keep himself from falling off the bending rail. He saw a red glow, signaling the end of the rail, but after it was another blue glow, meaning that there was another rail.

"Heh heh," Sonic grinned, placing his back foot at the end of his board. "I've done much more extreme tricks than this!" True to his word, he lifted himself off the rail and landed on the second with ease. More sparks flew off the Blue Star as the blue hedgehog leaned forward to push himself in that direction. "Not as fun as running away from the cops," he mused. "But whatever!"

Passing over the end of the rail meant that gravity played its role in pulling Sonic back onto the track. Said hedgehog found himself back outside, hearing the sounds of his friends supporting him.

"Don't lose your lead, Sonic!" Knuckles encouraged him.

"You can do it, Sonic!" Tails cheered, giving his surrogate brother a thumbs up. Sonic returned it with the same gesture as he rode up along a hill, losing his speed from ascending up it. The peak of the upwards slope was where Sonic regained his speed, which he used to rocket down the hill.

A small trick ramp awaited the Blue Blur, who jumped off it and performed a handstand on his Blue Star. Before landing on the road, he jumped back on his feet, turned behind him and posed for whatever camera he passed. What he didn't hear was the sound of gasping and fainting fangirls. Despite this, he managed to keep a good lead throughout the first lap.

After the second lap began for Sonic and he made it past that same point, he was greeted with an orange tinted tunnel. Zooming in it, he noticed the shapes of various pedestrians block the way for Sonic. Of course, they were just props for the racers, but it annoyed the speedster just the same. After swerving around one, he leaped over another, following up with another leap over a third obstacle and a deliberate near miss with a fourth.

Sonic reached the tunnel's end, to find a busy intersection in his way. Taking a glace upwards, he could see billboards with artists' interpretations of his various exploits, such as the whale chase in Emerald Coast and the final battle with the liquid monster called Chaos.

"Nice to see that they still remember that time!" Sonic grinned to himself. In truth, he didn't think that he was going to make it, but make it through he did, with the help of his friends! But that wasn't the situation at hand.

Sonic saw a group of hover cars block his path. However, on the sides of the road, he also noticed a wide half pipe around them, leaving him two options: swerve round the cars or perform a trick off the half pipe. Because he did the former in the previous lap, he immediately leaned over to the left and jumped off the half pipe, performing what was known as a 'nose grab' in the process. Landing successfully, Sonic twirled round and posed once more before continuing with the race.

Despite Sonic's performance so far, three of his opponents gradually closed in on the Blue Blur, desperate for victory. As the final lap began, the largest of the three, a polar bear, became blind in rage. In that rage, he swung his fist at the nearby squirrel, knocking him off his board and overtaking him. The last of the three, a weasel, also decided to play dirty. After ducking under the big guy's second punch, he stretched his foot to his opponent's ankle, tripping him off his board.

"Ouch! That must have hurt!" Omochao commented on the situation. "But you know what they say: anything goes in these races! Let's see if they bring themselves back up and catch up!"

Unfortunately for them, they never did.

Anyway, the little weasel closed in on Sonic even more as the two performed tricks off the half pipe. Said hedgehog turned around to find him in the distance.

"Well, took him long enough!" he told himself. "But now, it's time to step it up!" Bringing a foot off his board, Sonic kicked along the ground, propelling himself forward. However, as he noticed the incoming bend, he had no choice but to shift his weight to the right. Drifting on the bend ensured that he lost no speed. However, his opponent was not so skilled with Extreme Gear (or any type of boarding at all) and was forced to brake, turn and move forward (a much slower process!).

As Sonic approached the end of the turn, he brought his foot up and 'kick dashed' out of his drift. Chuckling at his opponent's stumble, he leaned forward to move faster on his board, nearing a giant ramp. The hedgehog crouched, then lifted himself and the Blue Star off the ramp, performing a backflip and an anticlockwise turn in sequence. As he landed, he encountered another ramp. Since he was confident in his victory, he decided to play it stylish by breakdancing as he made a clockwise turn. He gained a round of applause from the audience for the trick and an even bigger one for finishing the race.

"Wow! What a fantastic performance from Sonic!" Omochao cheered. "And by my calculations, Sonic just established a new track record!" Another round of applause rang in the city as Sonic waved to the cameras, catching a glimpse of the nearby weasel scurrying away in frustration.

"You win some, you lose some," he muttered to himself.

"So, tell me, Sonic," Omochao said to him. "How does it feel to break the previous record by a second?"

"Hah, winning was too easy. A piece of cake, if you will," the hedgehog grinned. "But breaking the track record? Didn't see that coming!"

"You know, if you keep this up, you could be the one to become the champion!"

"Then I guess I'll have to keep at it, won't I?"

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Future City, a green hawk kept his eyes on one of the giant video screens. After watching Sonic's race, he closed his eyes and smirked.

"Hmm, not bad. But still unimpressive for someone of your reputation, Sonic the Hedgehog! I will be the one to get those Chaos Emeralds, win the Grand Prix and prove who the fastest thing alive is!" Jet broke out in another eccentric sounding cackle as his vows were made.

* * *

Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Actually, don't do that.

Anyway, as of the time I'm typing this author's note, it's Halloween. As a little gift for the occasion, I decided to give you guys the next chapter early. I hope you enjoyed it!

In this novelization, tracks will be broken down into three parts, each of which will be written for each lap. I think it's a better structure than describing everything in the first lap, then improvising for the second and third, since the description will be spread out evenly.

In general, I think that Sonic Riders' storytelling could have been better, especially right after the races. Sometimes, it just feels barren. I take fun in adding extra details everywhere, the races in particular. I had fun with all of the races in this story. I enjoyed writing this chapter quite a bit, though not as much as I did the later ones.

In any case, thanks for reading. If you're planning to go trick or treating, have fun, but stay safe. And with that, I'll see you guys next time, on Saturday or Sunday.

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	4. Chapter 3

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 2: I don't think that the idea of turning a game into words is too uncommon. I've seen a couple of novelizations that have started up quite recently.

Besides, I don't find rewriting the events of games in a novelized format too difficult. Some games opt for better gameplay and leave the storytelling as a side priority. If you want to write a video game novelization of your own, chances are that you'll find gaps that you can fill easily, using your own imagination.

By the way, you told me about your witch costume in your review. How did it go?

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_'s review of Chapter 2: Hmm... Perhaps the bear and weasel were Bark and Fang... Perhaps not... I'll leave it up to you to decide. ;)

Reply to _Enigmatic Porcupine_'s review of Chapter 2: Too bad for that guy, huh? He might (or might not) have been such a recognized figure, too!

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**-Chapter 3: Floating Planks On The Waves-**

After Sonic's great performance in his race, he sought out and reunited with Tails and Knuckles, who were looking to congratulate their hedgehog friend for making it through.

"Great job out there, Sonic!" Tails said, giving a high five to his best friend.

"Heh heh. It was nothing, really," Sonic replied. "Oh, who am I kidding? Breaking the track record was sweet!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be a braggart all you want," Knuckles teased him.

"It takes skill to do what I've just done," Sonic responded playfully. "Besides, Tails and I both saw how you barely managed to pass that guy in your race!"

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Easy there, guys," Tails said with a chuckle. "Look. I'm pretty beat from my race and you guys look like it, too. Why won't we head back and rest up, now?"

"Fine with me!" Sonic grinned as he prepared to take off. "Last one there's a rotten Eggman!"

A while after the three of the left the scene, they were informed by a surprise TV announcement from Omochao that the first official race of the tournament was to be held the next day in the reserved nature area 'Splash Canyon'. This got everyone hyped up because Splash Canyon was regarded as one of the most beautiful places in the region. Though neither Sonic, Tails nor Knuckles were to compete, they decided to head to Splash Canyon to watch the race live.

* * *

**The Next Day, In Splash Canyon...**

The three friends walked along a wooden bridge, one that was supported with metal beams, as they checked out the track and discussed what Eggman was really after. With the doctor and the seven Chaos Emeralds involved, one could only make guesses...

"It can't be anything too important," Sonic reassured his echidna friend, who questioned Eggman's motives the most. "If he wanted those Emeralds so badly, he could have just hopped on his pod and searched for them, right?"

"But something still doesn't feel right," Knuckles insisted, crossing his arms as he walked. He glanced at Tails to see if he had anything to say, but the fox just stared at his Yellow Tail in deep thought. Every now and then, he took a look at the Blue Star and Red Rock, though it wasn't the boards themselves he was interested in. Not even the roar of the nearby waterfall snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm..." was the only sound he made.

"Hey, Soooniiic!" a higher pitched voice called out. Footsteps grew louder as the blue hedgehog turned around, fearing who called out his name.

"A-Amy..."

She admired (no, idolized!) Sonic even since he saved her in 'the Little Planet', aka 'the Miracle Planet'. Afterwards, she fell madly in love with him and vowed that they would marry someday. These days, they were friends, but inside, Amy knew that it wasn't enough.

"You're in this competition, too?" Sonic asked the pink hedgehog as she neared him and his friends.

"Of course," she giggled, placing her very pink Extreme Gear, the 'Pink Rose', down on the bridge. "It looks really exciting and fun. Why wouldn't I join?" Her green eyes gleamed as she made that last statement. Shuffling her new racing outfit, she added, "Besides..." She leaned towards her crush. Slowly. "This way, I'll be able to keep my eyes on you." The pink hedgehog winked at Sonic, leaving him slightly embarrassed. Knuckles smacked his forehead in response, while Tails still kept his focus on the boards. The other three noticed this and turned to him.

"That mark..." the fox murmured.

"Mark?" Sonic repeated, confused at what his friend was saying. The 'mark' was a genie lamp surrounded with little flames.

"Uh huh," Tails responded, nodding his head in affirmation. "I think it was on the boards of those guys we ran into in Future City a few days ago." He shut his eyes and began to think. What was it about the lamp that so significant? A legend behind it, perhaps?

Yes, that was it!

"Babylon."

"Babylon?" the other three repeated after their fox friend.

"Yes. It's the mark of the 'Babylon Rogues'," Tails said. "A long time ago, there was a floating island known as Babylon Garden. Supposedly, robbers lived there." Knuckles winced at this slightly. He knew how it felt to be robbed, robbed of the Master Emerald.

"According to rumors, this infamous band, the Babylon Rogues, were great thieves," Tails continued. "Legend also says that the Babylon Rogues incurred the wrath of the gods because of their crimes. Their island was cast into the depths of the earth and after that, the Babylonians were supposedly scattered for all time, never to be found. But they say that the Babylon Rogues' treasure still remains on that island, waiting to be discovered. There were also rumors that the Babylon Rogues were Extreme Gear specialists!" This definitely perked up Sonic's, Amy's and Knuckles' interest, especially Knuckles.

"Then, how can planks like this just float?" the echidna asked Tails, holding up his Red Rock.

"That's easy to explain!" the fox told him proudly. Apparently, he figured out how Extreme Gear worked, or so Knuckles thought. "According to the Kutta-Joukowski Lift Theorem, the control surface flow is balanced by the inverse kinetics of the..."

Somewhere along those lines, Knuckles lost him. Sonic and Amy were left baffled later on, but the way Tails explained it made Knuckles go crazy. His body shook as his teeth were clenched. His eyes suddenly span round. His head couldn't take that kind of information! He had enough!

"Stooop!" the echidna shouted, finally interrupting his friend. If Knuckles was a computer, he would have been fried. Not that being a computer would have made too big of a difference, for his brain sure felt like short circuiting and exploding! "Never mind what I asked, okay!? It just floats and that's good enough for me!"

Sonic and Amy sighed, while Tails just laughed sheepishly. He did again. Yes, long winding explanations was something that Tails' friends didn't appreciate from him. Speaking of laughter, another voice broke out in it, but it didn't come from Sonic, Amy or even Knuckles.

A purple swallow strolled by Sonic and friends, saying, "Sorry, but it's just too funny!" As she adjusted her necklace, which had a red gem, Wave couldn't help but catch glimpses of Team Sonic's boards. After taking a look around, she finally laid eyes on the Blue Star. "Hmm? Those Gears are unusual," she remarked, mainly addressing the blue board she was looking at.

"Customized them myself," Tails told her proudly. Wave, though, didn't seem too convinced. Was the eight year old fox really the one who designed those boards? Wave took the Blue Star off of its owner's hands and looked at it herself.

_Wow, this isn't actually half bad... for an amateur... _the swallow pondered to herself. _Still, you can never be too careful... _Gingerly, she turned the bottom of the board away from Sonic and friends and stuck a peculiar object on it. It was so minute, not even she could tell where it was by the time she lifted her hand.

Suddenly, she broke out in laughter once more, but not one because of a funny moment, but because...

"I never imagined anyone would enter the Grand Prix with such a piece of 'junk'!"

This remark gained quite the negative response from Sonic and friends. Sonic, Amy and Knuckles clenched their teeth in rage, while Tails tried not to show how he really felt. Still, his blue eyes showed major disappointment, but the rest of his body showed nothing else.

"Thanks, though," Wave smirked, casually dropping the Blue Star on the bridge. "It was good for a laugh." Letting out another 'hah', she took off. "See ya, shorty!"

Amy, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth against each other, snarled behind Wave's back, "Ooh, that girl! Who does she think she is!?" If there was one thing the pink hedgehog couldn't accept, it was the kind of tone Wave delivered with that response!

"How could she just go up and diss Tails like that?" Knuckles growled, cracking his namesakes. "If I see that girl again, I swear I'm gonna... I'm gonna pummel her to a pulp!" Meanwhile, Sonic just stared apologetically at his fox friend, who just picked up the Blue Star and handed it over.

"Hey. You okay, buddy?" the hedgehog asked.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," Tails tried to reassure Sonic with a sad smile. "I shouldn't let people like her get me down. You said yourself, right?" Sonic ruffled the top of his friend's head, though concern still showed in his eyes. "But..." Tails softly spoke. "Looking at the board now, I guess my design needs some work..."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Sonic smiled. "You always do your best. My Gear's been holding up pretty well, so don't listen to that girl!"

"The next race is about to begin," Omochao announced, stopping everyone in their tracks. "Wave the Swallow, Amy Rose, please come to the gate."

"Hmph. Now I'll show that girl that no one messes with my friends!" Amy growled, raising high in the sky her trademark hammer, known for being the cause of many of her enemies' major injuries.

"Good luck out there, Amy!" Sonic called to her as she left for the starting gate.

"Hee hee! Thanks, Sonic!" the pink hedgehog suddenly grinned, snapping out of her angry state.

Splash Canyon's starting gate looked similar to Future City's, but the pillars were wooden on the outside, while retaining their advanced technology on the inside. The 'START' sign protruded out of the left pillar in graffiti styled writing. Amy admitted that it wasn't the style she would have chosen, but that wasn't the point. At the starting gate, she saw Wave coming in, with her own Gear in hand. It was the 'Typhoon', which had a salmon colored standing plate and purple markings on its sides.

"You think you can win with that board?" Wave snarled at Amy. In hindsight, the pink hedgehog didn't do any customizing to her Pink Rose. In fact, all she did change was the name.

"You think you're so high and mighty, don't you?" said hedgehog snarled in return. "Well, after the way you dissed Tails, I'm not gonna hold back! I'll cream you!"

"Hah! Let's see you put those words into action." Just then, Omochao floated over to the scene, his microphone and camera in hand.

"Alright, girls. The rules are just the same as the preliminaries'," the robot Chao said to them. "The winner is the first to make three laps around the track. Any questions?" No response. "Good. Now, take your marks..."

Like with Future City, electric lines shot out of the pillars.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

"Go!"

The scene was recorded with several cameras, including Omochao's. Viewers across the world could see Wave and Amy dash out of the starting gate. Amy, not wanting to take out all of her rage yet, shifted her weight over to her opponent and knocked her to the side slightly. Wave retaliated with another nudge. The two kept doing so along the road until they jumped off a small ramp and performed spins in opposite directions to each other.

After the two landed on a wooden bridge, the two bad mouthed at each other as they rode off. They were tempted to slow down to a halt when they saw that the bridge had an end (more so with Amy), but they rushed down anyway and found themselves surfing along a river with a strong current.

Both Amy and Wave put their bad mouthing aside and focused on propelling themselves forward by leaning in that no time to marvel at the incoming waterfall's beauty, they bounced off a set of springs that took them upwards. The two females competed once more by performing flashy tricks, spins and flips. Wave, who knew when to stop, tauntingly laughed at Amy's mess up.

"This could cost her the race!" Omochao commented over the situation. Some viewers interpreted it as a comment on Amy's mess up, while others took it as a warning to Wave, who mumbled to herself something about Amy being an amateur.

In the second lap, said 'amateur' caught up with her opponent at the springs at the waterfall. Ahead of her and Wave were two routes: a set of rails to grind on and a contraption known as an 'air ring ramp', with a set of accelerator rings ahead of it. Amy leaned over to the right for the rails, while Wave steered away from her and towards the air rings.

When Wave jumped off the ramp, she found herself afloat and able to steer herself in the air, a slight surprise for the swallow. Regardless, she leaned towards the accelerator rings and boosted off them one by one.

Meanwhile, sparks flew off the Pink Rose as Amy grinded on the rails and jumped off to the next one with ease (she learned quite a bit from Sonic). At the last rail, she jumped and did a handstand as she landed and noticed Wave descend from the last accelerator ring. As they drifted along a tight bend, Wave decided that things were about to get serious.

She and Amy made it to the same bend on the final lap, Amy snapping at her opponent's snide remarks. Bored of having to deal with the pest, Wave reached for something in the crystal cave she rode in.

"Party's over, girly!" she smirked, brandishing a giant wrench!

"Not if I have to say anything about it!" Amy roared, taking out her trademark hammer as the sound of her voice echoed in the cave. The crystals that stood tall in the cave shattered by the weapons used, leaving the shards to fly at Wave and Amy, who blocked each one with their weapons. As they neared a ramp, they steered towards each other and clashed objects with one another, sparks flying from the hammer's contact with the wrench. However, realizing that they had to jump off the large ramp, they broke off of each other and performed turns of opposite directions to each other once again.

After they landed perfectly, Amy kick dashed ahead of Wave and cruised across the shallow lake. The crowds cheered for the pink hedgehog's impending victory, but then gasped at the object that suddenly flew over and knocked her off her board! It was Wave's wrench!

"Sorry, girly! I win this one!" Wave sneered as she crossed the finish line, ignoring the mixed reactions she was getting from the crowd.

While the victory interview between Omochao and Wave occurred, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles jumped out of their seats and rushed to Amy to help her.

"You okay, Amy?" Sonic asked her, wanting to make sure that she didn't sustain major injuries from that wrench.

"Uh..." the pink hedgehog groaned in pain, clutching where Wave's weapon hit her, her back.

"Does it hurt too bad?"

"N-No, but it definitely hurts, that's for sure!" Amy responded. "Stupid bird..." Knuckles and Tails glanced at the interview that went on and clenched their fists. Concerned for their friend, they turned to Amy.

"I'll go get Amy some help," Sonic said to the two. "You two go off wherever the next race is." Tails nodded, but Knuckles had doubts.

"But what if you're in the next race, Sonic? Neither of us can exactly cover for you, you know, and you don't even know where the next track is."

At that moment, Omochao spoke up, announcing that the next race was to be held in the 'Egg Factory' in six hours and that it was between Knuckles the Echidna and Storm the Albatross.

"Well, lucky for you, you won't have to worry about that," Sonic smirked. After wishing his echidna friend good luck, he picked up Amy bridal style and took off to 'who knows where'.

* * *

Woo, that was a fun one to write! My personal favorite line was Wave's 'Party's over, girly!'.

In the game, you raced as Tails in Splash Canyon in the Heroes story and as Wave in Red Canyon in the Babylon story. In this novelization, it was Wave vs Amy in Splash Canyon. While I think that the canon event was Wave vs Amy, I didn't want to write the race in a sunset setting. There would be too much orange. Besides, there'll be a track filled with orange in the next chapter.

But what will all of that mean for Tails' race? Will he get some action? Yes, he will! But that won't be for a while.

Just a quick heads up. Since I started another novelization (for the curious, it's on 'Megaman Battle Network'), I now have to juggle between that and this Sonic Riders novelization. As a result, updates on each one may be a little slower. I'll probably update this one on Saturdays and my other novelization on Sundays. As usual, if possible, I'll try to squeeze in updates on other days.

Anyway, thanks for reading today's chapter. I'll see you guys next time!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	5. Chapter 4

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_FeelTheWrathOfAura_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

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Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of the Prologue(did you mean to review Chapter 3?): Wave's a jerk. So much so, that I couldn't help but write in Wave's method to win!

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 3: You weren't the only one who was peeved off about Wave's actions towards Tails!

Reply to _FeelTheWrathOfAura_'s review of Chapter 3: Well, in the Babylon story of Sonic Riders, you are racing against Amy, so I figured that I should stay true to that.

Now, about your question about Tails' race, since Amy lost her in race against Wave, she's out of the tournament. If you've played Sonic Riders, you would know who else would lose (and, therefore, be dropped out of the tournament). For the sake of the story, I won't spoil anything.

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**-Chapter 4: A Heated Rivalry-**

**Later That Day, In The Egg Factory...**

Having arrived early, Knuckles and Tails took some time to explore the track, while Sonic remained with Amy to comfort her. As the two friends walked alongside each other, they couldn't help but feel beads of sweat slip down their foreheads. In hindsight, that was to be expected. The place wasn't given the nickname 'Thermal Factory' for nothing!

The scenery was a fiery orange and machines whirled round the place in perfect sync with each other. Robots of all kinds of colors patrolled round the very factory they were built in. In a time like the EX World Grand Prix, robbery rates were feared to increase, so the general public needed that extra protection. In contrast, this did bring up a few questions. Why would Dr Eggman be helping the people this way?

"He's probably just concerned for the people's safety," Tails said, adding to the conversation with Knuckles on that subject.

As Knuckles looked around the place, he couldn't help but hear a thud to the ground and his two tailed friend groan in pain. Crouching down to check up on him, he caught sight of gray and white on a large figure. At the same time, said person was tempted to rampage like a bull at the sight of red. Their eyes raised at who they saw.

"You!" Knuckles and Storm gasped as they down their Gears, ready to rumble already.

"What?" Tails scratched his head in confusion. As he caught a glimpse of Storm's Gear, the Hurricane (which was metal plated and surrounded with a thick amber orange material), his mouth gaped. He scurried behind his friend in fear.

"I'll make sure to pay you back for last time!" Storm vowed.

"Hah! I let you get away last time, but things will be different today!" Knuckles shouted back.

"Why wait, you little punk?" the large albatross smirked, taking a step towards his enemy. "I'll pay you back now! Tenfold!" He cracked his knuckles and got ready to launch a punch.

Knuckles, however, couldn't take this. He swung his own fist back to ready a punch, but accidentally knocked Tails on the face with his backswing! After the echidna felt his namesake connect with the chin, he jumped upwards in fear and immediately turned backwards.

"Oh, shoot!" he shouted, trying to help his friend up. "I-I swear I didn't mean to do that, Tails!"

"W-What was that, you clumsy fool!?" Storm couldn't help but laugh. "I'll show you a real punch!"

Winding up his fist, he took a step backwards, not knowing that a red robot was marching in front of him. Knuckles told him to stop when he noticed the machine, but Storm ignored him. With a large swing, the bird knocked out the robot and not Knuckles! As the machine lied on the ground, its glowing eyes blackening, Storm panicked as he picked it up.

"S-Sorry there! I-It wasn't my fault!" he stuttered. "If he hadn't wimped out and faced me, I would have clobbered-" With the sound of a spring, the machine's head popped right out, sparks sizzling from where it once connected with the body.

"Whaaat!?" Knuckles yelled. Straight away, Tails jumped back up and hauled it over to whatever tech support he could find, resisting the urge to mutter something about Knuckles and Storm not using their brains. Just then, an announcement from Omochao blared.

"The race is about to begin. Knuckles the Echidna, Storm the Albatross, please come to the Egg Factory's starting gate now."

"Grr! The track! We'll settle it there!" Knuckles growled, cracking his namesakes before picking up his board.

"Looking forward to it!" Storm smirked. After he picked up his own Gear, he chased after his enemy to the designated location.

The starting gate's industrial appearance suited its location and the word 'START' stood out in bright capital letters. As Omochao admired the structure, he heard the clatter of footsteps that came from the two competitors. To be honest, the robot Chao could tell that those two weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but he knew that they were determined to win. Bickering between Knuckles and Storm played out as he turned to greet them.

"So, first one to make three laps wins the race, right?" Knuckles asked Omochao quickly, not taking a breath between each word.

"Actually-"

"Great! Let's go! I wanna crush that little red mutt right now!" Storm interrupted him.

"What did you just call me!?" said 'mutt' snapped back, readying his fists for a fight. The large albatross pumped out his own, but before they could trade blows, Omochao swooped right between them.

"Woah! Save it for the track, guys!" he shouted, holding out his 'hands' in front of the two fighters. Then, bringing the two closer to him, he added in a hushed tone, "You're on live TV, remember?" Knuckles and Storm apologized immediately, but they didn't resist the urge to glare at each other. Ignoring this, Omochao began to go over the rules. "Yes, Knuckles, the first one to make three laps wins. However, there's a catch this time round."

"This time?" Storm repeated, scratching his head.

"You see, there'll be robots walking across the track," Omochao continued. "While you're out there, you can't run into or knock on any of them. If you do so to three of them, you'll be disqualified. Are we all clear?"

"Crystal clear, sir," Storm said, saluting him.

"Uh, yeah... What he said," Knuckles sighed.

"Good. Now, take your marks..."

"Wait! We're starting now!?" Hastily, the two competitors picked up their boards and took their positions. Then, an electric line shot out from between the pillars. As sparks flew from it, Knuckles and Storm glared at each other once more.

"Three..."

They crouched down.

"Two..."

They sprinted ahead.

"One..."

"Go!"

Knuckles and Storm were just an inch away from getting stunned and losing a lot of speed, but they pulled through. Like in Future City, there was a dip and rise, followed by a trick ramp. In the Egg Factory, the ramps were rusty brown with maroon arrows pointing ahead.

The two powerhouses continually knocked on each other and didn't realize that they had to jump off the ramp, leading to failed tricks and loss of speed. Enraged, Knuckles kick dashed ahead of his rival, while said albatross followed suit and attempted to nudge him off his Red Rock.

"Wow! This is looking to be a grudge match between Knuckles and Storm!" Omochao commented, while the two competitors jumped off a smaller ramp and performed turns away from each other. A sharp bend in the track caught them off guard, but Knuckles held his right hand in front of him and pushed himself against the wall, propelling himself forward and boosting ahead of Storm.

As Knuckles smirked to the fact that he held the lead, Storm kick dashed once again and readied his fist. The echidna took notice of this and swung his own at it, the force of the two punches pushing them away from each other. They approached another sharp bend, but thanks to the fist clash, Knuckles was pushed on the outside of it, so Storm cut past him, drifted round and took the lead. By that point on the track, in the second lap, Knuckles decided that he was kicking it into high gear!

The magma of the Egg Factory burned like the echidna's determination to win and he wasn't about to let Storm get away with holding the lead for the rest of the first lap. As he neared the ramp, he crouched, slowing down meanwhile. With a grab on the end of his board, he leaped into the air and somersaulted forward. After following up with an anticlockwise turn, he landed perfectly on a higher path than the one his rival was on.

"Hah! Take that!" he shouted aloud, his voice echoing as he was propelled forward with Dash Pads.

"Don't get so cocky! The race isn't over yet!" Storm raised a fist, not knowing what was in front of him. The large gloved fist ploughed through a coat of metal and little beeps and blips echoed in the factory. With gasps of shock from the crowd, Storm knew what he did and muttered a little 'uh oh'.

"Ooh! That's one out of three robots Storm has knocked on!" Omochao announced. "Two more and he's out!"

"Look what you made me do, you idiot!" The albatross' enraged cry echoed as Knuckles was propelled to his right by a stray Dash Pad facing said direction.

Soon, gravity pulled him back from the shortcut to the main path. Storm and Knuckles then found themselves pushed upwards by a powerful fan. With the second they had without ground to travel on, they flipped in the air. They landed successfully on a new part of the track, one that was supported by heat resistant bars.

"It was your fault that you punched that guy out!" Knuckles reminded his opponent. "You should watch where you punch!"

"What did you say!? Now I'm mad!"

"Hmph! You've been mad since you knocked that other robot out before the race, but you still can't do anything about it!" Knuckles smashed through a set of barrels for a shortcut as he made this remark.

"Graaaaah! That's it! Victory is mine for sure!" Storm couldn't take anymore. With a fierce kick dash, he boosted himself forward and barreled through a passerby robot, not caring that he had one more chance before getting disqualified.

When it came to Extreme Gear, turbulence streams were released behind the boards and the size of it depended on the rider's speed. Racers could ride the turbulence and catch up with their rivals. That was what Storm did to pass Knuckles and take back the lead.

Through the rest of the second lap and through most of the final lap, the two rivals abused each other's turbulence trails to get ahead. As they performed tricks, they purposely knocked the Red Rock and the Hurricane into each other, in hopes that it would knock the other off balance. Ignoring Omochao's comments on the race becoming more of a fight, they returned to the point in the track with the set of barrels.

Knuckles and Storm took opposite sides and each lifted a barrel with one hand, punching through the rest with the other. As they raced across a left bend, they hurled the items to knock each other off, but it was to no avail. The barrels collided with each other, bursting into various robot parts. Storm cracked his knuckles, while Knuckles did a few arm stretches, and the two rode leaned towards each other.

Swinging their fists at each other, they were once again propelled away. Off an approaching ramp, they performed turns towards each other. As they landed, they launched at each other again, Storm narrowly dodging an incoming robot. They drifted along a sharp left turn and continued to knock into each other.

Soon after realizing that they were riding along a straight path, the two powerhouses focused on getting ahead instead of knocking each other out. They kick dashed repeatedly, gaining constant speed boosts, but as they approached a right turn, they were forced to drift. The core of the Egg Factory was as fiery as Knuckles and Storm's rage. Because they were nearing the starting gate for the third time, they attempted to grind each other off to the pillars.

Their shoulders were pushed against each other. They growled and roared like wild lions.

They crossed the finish line!

But... who won?

Omochao asked for the footage of the final stretch to be replayed and the screens displayed said footage upon orders. As it was being played, Knuckles, Storm, the crowd and even Omochao was left in cliffhanger like suspense. Hearts raced. Fists were clenched. Eventually, the replay was slowed down to a halt the moment someone crossed the finish the line.

Well, more like someones.

"It's... a tie!" Omochao declared, gaining gasps from the crowd and the competitors. "However..."

"What now?" Knuckles groaned. Would there have to be a rematch? The echidna was exhausted enough!

"The winner will be determined by how many times each racer has knocked on a robot."

"What!?" Storm began to sweat like crazy. He wanted to run away and cower behind his boss.

"Knuckles has knocked out zero robots, but Storm has knocked out two. Therefore, after this war zone of a race, Knuckles has come out on top!"

The crowd cheered and applauded Knuckles for his victory. Knuckles smirked and made a pose for the fans out there. Clearly, he took too much influence from Sonic, for the fangirls shrieked ear piercing shrieks.

Meanwhile, Storm was enraged. Enraged and devastated.

"You may have won this round! But don't get too happy!" he yelled at Knuckles. "I'll get you for this! You'll see!"

Under all that determination, the albatross couldn't help but worry about how the boss, Jet, would react to his loss. What would he do? How would he be able to make up for this humiliating defeat?

As fast as he could, Storm rushed out of the Egg Factory to find his boss' airship.

* * *

At first, I wasn't as big on this chapter as I was on the others because I'm not a huge fan of the Factory tracks in Sonic Riders. However, looking back, I consider it a huge success. I enjoyed writing the little snarls Knuckles and Storm made at each other.

If I were to give an overall theme to this chapter, it would be 'rivalry'.

* * *

**-Have a great, day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	6. Chapter 5

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 4: The Rogues don't give up, do they?

Yes, I had to make that pun on the chapter title...

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors' _review of Chapter 4: The thing with writing about two rival characters is that there's a lot of material. For instance, their behavior and actions towards each other could lead to hilarious results. In short, yes, I did enjoy going over and writing Knuckles and Storm's characters there.

Reply to _Enigmatic Porcupine_'s review of Chapter 4: I see what you did there.

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**-Chapter 5: Sub Zero Storm-**

**In The Northern Parts Of The Region...**

Jet's airship passed a nearby mountain. The snowfall made it hard to see, but that wasn't what was on the captain's mind at the moment. The hawk stared out the window, several thoughts clouding his mind, like the clouds that scattered across the sky. Thoughts on the crystal box he held, thoughts on 'the key to Babylon Garden'... Thoughts on Dr Eggman's motives... Just as Jet was about to get up...

"S-Soorry!" A deep cry has heard, along with the sound of those ever so infamous footsteps. That could only mean one person...

"Aaah!" Jet screamed, jumping out of his seat as Storm approached the captain's room. Well, instead of 'approached', let's use the word 'stampeded'.

In defeat and failure, the large albatross slammed his hands and face on the table, telling his boss, "Th-the red dude beat me... in the race..."

While Jet was disappointed that Storm lost to Knuckles, what really aggravated him was that it was the second time in only a week that Storm just burst in like that. As he picked himself up and grumbled, he made a mental note to get his friend some help.

"Man, you really are worthless..." Wave sighed from outside the room. The other two Babylon Rogues looked at her, then back at each other.

"But it wasn't my fault!" Storm tried to tell Jet. "He... must have cheated! He used some special type of Gear, that's it!"

The boss sighed.

"Oh boy..."

"What!?" Wave squawked. "Are you implying that you lost because of my Gear!?" She pointed a finger and jabbed it at Storm's round stomach. "No one can tune a Gear the way I can!" Storm backed away slightly. "Accept it, buddy," Wave snarled. "It's not the board." She turned right round, her hands on her hips. "Your skills just suck!"

"Wha... S-Su... S-S... Suck?" Storm half stuttered half gasped.

"Yes," the mechanic responded bluntly. "S-U-C-K. Suck!"

"Su... S..."

"Stop it!" Jet screamed, slamming his own hands on the table, grabbing the attention of the bickering two. "Now, let's get down to business, you two." Said bickerers nodded. "I believe our 'colleague' Eggman... is hiding something. And as you know, I don't like secrets." Jet walked back and forth as he spoke, leaving his teammates wondering what was going to happen. "Storm, I've got a job for you."

"Sure!" the albatross replied.

Jet, looking down the window, said, "I want you to sneak into Eggman's base over there." He pointed at the glass and motioned Storm over. The snow fell less, making it somewhat easier for them to see Eggman's ice base. "Make sure you look carefully and find what he's hiding. We'll meet up in Sand Ruins to take a look."

"You got it, boss!" Storm affirmed, saluting his boss as he took off to carry out his mission.

"Hey! Before you go!" Jet called him back. The powerhouse turned around. "Return with something, or don't return at all!"

While frightened slightly, Storm returned with a confident response of 'Yes, sir!' before rushing out. As he took off, he swung the door shut behind him. The vibrations from the door shook everything else in the room, including a particular painting of Jet's father that hung above the table.

The painting itself shook for a moment. Then, after a split second of stillness, it came crashing down on the floor and the frame shattered like glass. Jet yelped at the crash and landed on the floor himself.

Slowly, his face changed from a state of utter shock to a state of pure rage. His teeth were clenched. His fists shook. He leaped from the floor, then stomped on the ground, as mad as a bull. He lunged for the table. He then swung his foot at it with great force, breaking it in half!

Wave yelped in fear and backed away from the angry captain, for it seemed like it wasn't just Storm who needed help.

* * *

**At Eggman's Base...**

The entire area was ice cold. Far too cold for Storm. He couldn't help but shiver as he finally arrived at Eggman's new base, a large, gray tower with searchlights moving around it. The face displayed at the front of the tower resembled the owner of the base himself, Eggman. Apart from the sign of narcissism, the tower was truly an industrial feat. However, Storm didn't have time to admire it, for he was constantly on the move because of the searchlights.

They moved in regular patterns, but the albatross kept panicking and kept running close to getting caught. At one point, when Storm hid behind a barrel and peeked out, his head was an inch away from one of the searchlights! Eventually, though, after constant weaving in and out behind barrels and after slipping between some of the searchlights, Storm was finally able to set foot into the base.

Storm breathed a sigh of relief, but as soon as he found that the area around him was illuminated, he knew something was wrong.

"Uh oh..."

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" a mechanical voice announced. "DEPLOY ALL SECURITY UNITS AT THE ENTRANCE!" The watch robot repeated its message to the other units as they seemed to jump out of nowhere and surround Storm.

"Uh... Hey?" he tried to fake greet them, but it was no use. The green robots' eyes shone red.

"TARGET ACQUIRED!" the apparent leader of the squad announced. "ATTACK! ATTACK!" The sounds of revving and whirring echoed in the base. The robots began to attack!

"Oh no!" Storm yelled in fear. He hopped on the Hurricane and kick dashed away. The trailing turbulence blew the eight robots away temporarily, but they recovered swiftly and chased after the intruder.

Storm came across a set of giant fans, surrounded by more robots. He barreled through the fans and knocked over the robots, little did he know that the ruckus he caused resulted in more security robots on the move. As their numbers added up to extreme levels, Storm found himself losing his speed. Taking a moment to look back, he realized that he was up a slope. The path, from that point onwards, kept spiraling up the tower.

"There's got to be something good up the top of this thing!" Storm said to himself. "I better get there before the boss has my head!"

There were other paths that branched out, all of which were guarded by a robot or two each. Luckily, the side paths led Storm back on the main path. He kept kick dashing to regain his speed and he knocked away more robots, still not knowing that it caused twice as much of them to chase after him. Eventually, Storm saw what looked like a dead end.

"Gaaah!" the albatross yelled in fear. However, as he backed up and slowed down, he seemed to notice a set of buttons on the side of what looked like a door. "An elevator? Just my lucky day!" Storm turned around and uttered a prayer to his ancestors to help him get through. There appeared to be hundreds of robots, maybe thousands!

As they slowly inched their way towards their target, Storm repeatedly mashed a button for the elevator to turn up. Frantically, he turned his head back and forth. In no time, he felt metal hands grab him by the waist!

"PREPARING TO EJECT INTRUDER."

"DING!"

"Ah! The elevator! Back off, you pieces of scrap metal!" Storm squirmed out of the robot leader's grasp and grabbed his board. As he slowly walked backwards to inside the elevator, he swung the Hurricane around, hoping to repel any of the robots. Fortunately, as the doors began to close, there was enough space between Storm and them.

The elevator began to rise. This gave Storm some time to mutter another prayer to his ancestors, one of thanks. He remained silent afterwards. With the sound of a bell, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

The massive structure that loomed over Storm as he walked up to it was a supercomputer. Next to the keyboard were several chips. These chips contained information that would prove to be useful to the Babylon Rogues, but Storm couldn't decide which one to take.

He closed his eyes and waved his hand randomly above the pile. Afterwards, he dipped his hand down and took the one it was below.

"Aha! Jet will be so proud of me!" Storm laughed triumphantly as he rode out of the base.

* * *

In the game, you would be playing as Storm in Ice Factory. As you know, he needed to get away from the robots. So this leads to my question. Why does Storm race the robots in a three lap race?

He's trying to get away, not see who's faster! Also, he's out of the tournament, so the race in the game wasn't a tournament race.

Bah. At least the gameplay isn't bad...

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	7. Chapter 6

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 5: I really need to get a hold of Sonic Lost World soon. It got mixed reviews, but it seems like a spiritual successor to Sonic Colors because of the Wisp powers, which isn't a bad thing.

* * *

**-Chapter 6: Forest Frenzy-**

**Somewhere In The Forest...**

"Aaaaah..."

Jet threw himself onto the lush, green grass, resting his head on his hands. As his eyes began to shut, a smile pulled along his beak. While the sun's rays found their way through the abundance of leaves from the trees, little woodland creatures chirped, setting a peaceful and calm scene.

Sand Ruins, the place Jet agreed to meet up with Storm again, was only a short airship ride away, but Wave's next race was to take place in this forest, so the two of them decided to stop for a break from the sky. Besides, as a place to kick back and relax, it definitely had that over the desert!

As for Jet's purple companion, she was not so keen on relaxing.

"Oh... Oh boy, oh boy..." Wave followed up this repetition with a grunt of frustration as she paced back and forth. "Urgh... Are you sure we should have trusted Storm with that mission, Jet?" she questioned his leader.

"What's up with you?" Jet asked in response, with his eyes still shut. "You don't think Storm's up for the task?"

"Well... I wouldn't imagine Storm failing to sneak into Eggman's base, but... Isn't he a little bit..." She stopped to think of the correct word, but when she did find one, Jet opened his eyes and interrupted her.

"Everything's gonna be fine, so just sit down and relax. Chill, Wave."

"Really, Jet! How can you be so relaxed at a time like this?" Wave scolded her leader, stomping her foot. No response. "Don't you see?" Wave continued. "As the leader, you've got responsibilities." Still no response. "Some you understand, but..."

From that point, all Jet could hear was the sound of gibber. He should have been used to Wave's lectures, though he was never able to grow accustomed to them. He turned away from his friend, despite her still babbling. Apparently, it disturbed the peace of the scenery, since Jet couldn't help but hear the sound of rustling leaves, which he assumed to be little birds flying away in fear.

_I can't blame them..._

However, upon closer inspection, Jet noticed a figure descending through the leaves, one that he remembered seeing a few days ago. The hawk smirked.

"Hmm... I think it's time for a little fun!"

So he didn't disturb Wave while she continued to ramble on and on, Jet picked himself up from the grass very slowly. Then, he bent down and grabbed his Extreme Gear, the Cyclone, a green board with a yellow ring around a metal footing plate. Afterwards, he crept past her at a speed equal to that of a snail. Luckily, Wave's eyes were closed as she went on and on, making... awkward poses... as she did so.

However, as Wave's ears finally caught sound of rustling leaves, she opened her eyes. After looking around, she couldn't find her leader.

"Hey, Jet!" she screamed in rage. "You come back here! Right! Now!"

Once again, there was no response. Jet disappeared off to a more interesting spot.

"Why do I even bother?" Wave sighed, placing a hand on her hip. "Unless I take charge, nothing ever gets done..." She could have went to look for his green friend, but she decided against it. After all, the next race was going to start soon and she was called up to compete, as well as a certain two tailed fox she ran into earlier.

"The semifinal race will begin in ten minutes! Wave the Swallow, Miles 'Tails' Prower, please convene at the starting gate prior to that time!"

Omochao's announcement reached everywhere in the forest, including where a certain trio of heroes were.

Sonic, who had just returned from tending to Amy's wounds, shot past the mighty trees' leaves in the middle of a series of backflips. As he descended to the ground, he performed two clockwise turns before landing perfectly.

Knuckles whistled, then commented, "Wow, Sonic! You've really gotten better!"

"Yeah! Where did you learn those techniques?" Tails added, running up to his best friend, who smirked cockily at the compliments he received.

"Hah! Still very disappointing for someone of your reputation!" another voice called out, the sound echoing through the forest. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles turned around to look for the source. Sonic looked upwards and saw someone up on one of the branches, someone he didn't want to see.

"You..." the hedgehog growled.

"You know, I've checked you out," Jet said. "Not bad... I'll admit that you're pretty fast on your feet. But with Extreme Gear, it's a whole different story! You see, to become the fastest on a Gear, you have to become one with the wind! Without wings... Well, you might as well kiss the ground and go home!"

"What did you just say to him!?" Knuckles snarled, stepping in front of Sonic.

Jet ignored the red sidekick. With a huge leap, he left the scene, another cackle echoing in the forest.

"Who does he think he is?" Knuckles growled, cracking his namesakes.

Sonic shrugged, then said, "Well, he's probably not all talk, you know. I better keep on my toes during this competition." Sonic looked at the Blue Star. Tails noticed this and looked at the board, too. A voice replayed in his mind.

_'I never imagined anyone would enter the Grand Prix with such a piece of 'junk'!'_

"Sorry, Sonic," Tails said to him. "I just need to fine tune a few things, then your Gear will be at 100%!"

"C'mon, man. Don't push yourself," Knuckles responded, placing an arm on his shoulder for a second.

"Yeah. You always do your best, buddy," Sonic reassured his surrogate brother.

"But Wave had a point..." the fox responded. "She must be a really brilliant mecha mechanic." He turned away for a second to gather his thoughts. Turning back to his friends, he told them, "Sonic! Knuckles! Don't worry! I'll unlock the secret of the Extreme Gears for us!" Sonic and Knuckles nodded, getting the same response from the two tailed fox. Then, said fox picked up the Yellow Tail and headed for the starting gate. His friends encouraged him to do his best in the race as he walked off.

At the starting gate, Tails noticed a certain someone leaning on one of the pillars. A purple swallow, along with her Gear resting on the pillar. That was his opponent.

"Miles, huh?" Wave sneered. "What kind of name is that?"

"... It's Tails."

"Whatever, shorty. You know that your skills aren't up to scratch with mine, so why not save yourself some time and go home?"

Though Tails said nothing, there was no doubt that if he was someone else, he would have let out all of his rage in one punch. However, he didn't want to waste his energy. He knew that Wave's talk was cheap. However, as Tails focused his thoughts on trying to win the race, he couldn't help but notice a familiar looking mark on the underside of Wave's Gear, the Typhoon.

"That's..." he began to whisper to himself, though he cut himself off as he saw Omochao arrive on the scene.

The robot Chao appeared in front of Tails and Wave to go over the rules once more. He revealed that, like the race in the Egg Factory, there was a twist.

"The first one to make three laps might not be declared the winner," the robot Chao said. "You see, this time, there will be a points system. While you'll be awarded points for the time you take to finish, you'll also be given points for the quality of your tricks. However, any time the cameras catch you messing up somehow, you'll lose some points. While this system will encourage you to dazzle the audience with your skills, don't take too long out there! Got it?"

"Yeah," Tails and Wave both said.

"Great! Good luck out there, you two! Now, take your marks..."

On that note, the two competitors took their positions. Meanwhile, the electric line shot out. Wave turned to Tails and made one more remark, while Tails glared at her.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

"Go!"

As the electric line disappeared, the two racers sped ahead, hopped on their boards and kick dashed away. Like in the other tracks featured in the Grand Prix, the first thing seen was a slope. Tails and Wave gained speed as they rushed downwards, but because of Wave's design, she got ahead slightly. The two approached a ramp, from which they performed their own turns and flips. Wave laughed at the assumption that she scored more points from the trick. After all, she was lifted higher in the air with her jump, so she was able to squeeze in an extra turn.

Tails and Wave then approached a large bend, boarded with wooden planks along the edges. This was where their drifting skills were put to the test. While Wave moved inwards straight away, Tails was forced to move slightly outwards. However, this situation soon turned to the latter's favor, as he gave himself enough room to close in gradually, while the former was restricted right near the planks in order to keep ahead.

The turbulence from the Yellow Tail swept the Typhoon into it and as Tails inched outwards slightly once again, Wave was forced to follow. She couldn't escape the force of the burst of wind and that was bad timing for her! At the end of the large leftward bend, there was a sharp turn to the right. Suddenly, Tails appeared to be a spinning top. He did a quick 360 turn, which generated a small tornado from the Yellow Tail's back end. Because of the turbulence, Wave was forced into the little wind funnel and was swept backwards.

"Woah! Did you see that, folks?" Omochao gasped in excitement. "Tails' turbulence led Wave to his tornado! There's some bonus points for him!"

Not letting it get to his head, Tails simply turned round the bend and kick dashed out of the drift, while Wave lagged behind. Tails would have been happy to know that he kept the lead throughout the first lap, but one thing lurked on his mind. His mission was to defeat Wave and put her in her place.

However, in the second lap, Wave was already nearing Tails, thanks to some of her cunning schemes. At the rightward bend, the two racers saw the path split into three, one of which led to an air ring ramp with a path of accelerator rings. From this point, they were racing on an abnormally large tree. As the centerpiece of the track, its mighty branches stood the test of time and served as the pathways for the racers.

Wave knew that Tails had his eye on heading for the ramp, so she quickly drew up a plan for him. One of her inventions was the 'Bowling Bomb', which needed to be rolled like a bowling ball, so it could home in on a target and blow up. With as much power as she could, Wave launched her weapon at her opponent, little did he know of his impending doom.

After quite an explosion, Tails was sent high in the sky, though he kept hold of the Yellow Tail. However, this meant that Wave was able to take the air ring ramp and fly through the rings, stealing the lead in the process.

"Ha ha! Anything goes in this race, shorty!" Wave cackled, her voice echoing in the track.

Tails, being known for his intelligence, thought on the spot for a solution to his problem, ignoring Omochao's rather irritating commentary meanwhile. As the fox descended, he shifted his weight forward, hoping that he would shoot through an accelerator ring and to the rest. The air rushed upwards and against him, while the pressure soared to tremendous levels.

_Come on! Will I make it?_

To the crowd's shock and surprise, the maneuver turned out to be a success. As the accelerator ring shot Tails forward, he cheered to himself aloud.

"Ha ha! I did it, I did it!"

He continued to boost through to each accelerator ring until he made it through the last one, from which he performed two anticlockwise turns, then a front flip. The crowd roared in applause, while Wave grew angry at the noise.

With a series of three kick dashes, Tails caught up with his opponent. Then, the two racers came across a large bridge, which was shaped like a millipede. It twisted and turned around, then connected back to some artificial road. Tails and Wave raced along it, the latter continually bumping into the former throughout, in hopes of knocking him off.

_Gah! This girl would do anything to win!_ Tails' teeth clenched at this thought. He was tempted to retaliate, but he only knocked Wave away from him in defense, instead of trying to knock her off the track in offence.

Throughout the rest of the second lap and the majority of the third lap, Wave threw all sorts of contraptions at Tails, who kept finding his way out of them each time. After the two raced along the millipede roads again, they sped along a straight path, thanks to the Dash Pads. Tails pulled ahead, leaning to the right for another air ring ramp. Wave, frustrated at a lack of inventions to throw at him, chased after the fox in pursuit. She knew that she had to rely on her own skills to get ahead at this point.

After performing turns off the last accelerator ring, Tails and Wave were neck and neck. All that stood in their way was a final ramp and three large webs. To get the most points possible, they had to perform the flashiest tricks they could. Wave still bumped into Tails purposely with her clockwise turn, messing his trick up.

As they bounced off the first web, the two did backflips. After bouncing on the second web, Wave, keeping hold of the Typhoon with her feet, did a handstand on Tails' Yellow Tail and pushed herself off to do another backflip, gaining an overwhelming response from the crowd. She and Tails bounced very high off the third web, much higher than the other two webs enabled them to, so it was a battle in the sky for the most points.

As they descended, Wave attempted to use Tails as a 'stepping stone' once again, but as her hands were about to touch the board, Tails used his namesakes to grab the Yellow Tail. Then, the fox himself somersaulted away from the swallow, then looked downwards for the finish line. Taking a tip from Sonic, Tails flicked his board with his namesakes, then turned around as it span. As he caught it, he landed perfectly on his two feet past the goal line. The crowd roared in applause once more, ignoring the fact that Wave finally crossed the finish line soon after.

"And with that, the race is over!" Omochao declared. "Let's tally up the scores, shall we?"

"Hmph! I'm still gonna win, you know?" Wave sneered at Tails, who still gave no response.

"Wave, you did a great job out there!" As Omochao said this, a replay of Wave's handstand push on Tails' board appeared on screen. "Out of a possible 100, you got 85!"

As the crowd cheered, Wave laughed at Tails, "Beat that!"

"As for Tails..." Omochao began, a replay of his somersault trick appearing on screen. "You did marvelously! Out of 100, you got 90!"

The crowd cheered even louder for Tails than they did for Wave, who was left stunned at the results and stuttered, "B-But... m-my board is... better!"

Tails turned around, with a huge smile on his face, but before he could say anything to Wave, he found that she was gone.

"Wave? Hmm."

* * *

And with that, Tails finally got some action! Woooo!

This one was a blast to write. Fancy board tricks, explosions... What more could you ask for? Being that Tails is my favorite Sonic character, my bias kinda shone through for a while. I conjured up the little trick battle in the sky, just for Wave and Tails to do the coolest tricks they could.

Overall, taking into account the rivalry the two share for each other was what made writing this chapter so much fun. As usual, thank you, everyone, for reading. The next chapter will be a little shorter than usual, but the one after should make up for it.

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	8. Chapter 7

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

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Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_SonicFanAlways_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

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Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 5: I always got a kick out of that scene. It's pretty funny to hear the word 'suck' used in such a way in Sonic games. However, Shadow the Hedgehog, which came before Sonic Riders, used actual swears. Did it create a darker atmosphere? No. It was so out of place and stupid, it was hilarious!

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 6: I figured that Tails would learn a few tricks from Sonic. Seems like they paid off.

Oh, Omochao... He will never understand why he is despised oh so much...

Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 6: People undermine Tails' capabilities too often. For shame...

* * *

**-Chapter 7: The Treasure Of Babylon-**

A little while after Tails won his race, his opponent, Wave, just left the scene. That left the two tailed fox with a few thoughts in his head. He was so immersed in those thoughts, that he didn't even see Sonic and Knuckles head his way.

"What's up, Tails?" Knuckles greeted him.

"Yeah. We heard that you beat that girl on the race," Sonic smiled. "Great job out there!"

"Heh heh... Thanks, guys," Tails chuckled for a second. He then flipped his Yellow Tail Gear upside down and had a look at it. What he saw was linked with what he was thinking.

"What? Did that girl place a bomb in there?" Knuckles asked, snapping Tails out of his thoughts for a little bit.

"Ha ha, that seems farfetched there, Knuckles," Sonic couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey. Who's to say I'm wrong?" the red echidna replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Nothing's wrong with the board, Knuckles," Tails finally spoke up. "But... You know how I was talking about that mark before?"

"The mark of the Babylon Rogues?" Sonic tried to recall.

"Yes. Lately, I've been noticing that mark on everyone's boards." This triggered Sonic and Knuckles to turn over their boards and have a look. Sure enough, the genie lamps with the flames around them happened to be there. "I'm sure that I saw it on Wave's board," Tails said. "And perhaps it's on Amy's board, too."

"So, what's gotten you thinking?" Sonic asked, confused, at first, as to what Tails was on about. Knuckles scratched his head, wondering the same thing as Sonic.

"Remember how we got our hands on these boards? We ordered them off of Eggman," Tails reminded his friends. "But my observations aren't just coincidence and the mark of the Babylon Rogues is on every board that Eggman shipped off, then..."

"Then, what?" Knuckles spoke.

"Eggman might know something about the Babylonians."

"Huh?"

"All of the participants of this tournament required a Chaos Emerald," Tails began to explain. "This very tournament involves Extreme Gear, something that the Babylonians were an expert in. Could Eggman have left behind clues that the Chaos Emeralds and the Babylonians are linked somehow?"

"Hmm..."

It was Sonic's turn to think. Tails had come up with convoluted theories before. As always, he wondered whether he was right. Results have varied over past adventures, but with a smile on his face, Sonic decided to take the challenge.

"Well, whatever Eggman's got planned, he sure doesn't know how to 'Sonic proof' them!" he said. "We always break down the guy's plans, so there's no need to worry, Tails. Besides, this Extreme Gear business has been pretty fun! Just relax a little, buddy. You think too much."

"Maybe... But I just can't help but have that feeling..."

Just then, an announcement from Omochao blared in the forest.

"The preparations have been made! All finalists must meet up in Sand Ruins prior to the time of the race!"

Earlier, Omochao made an announcement that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Jet the Hawk had made it to the finals. Having heard the location of the final race, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles hopped on their boards and made their way over. Though he was advised not to worry too much, Tails couldn't help but have that sense of fear in his gut...

* * *

**In Sand Ruins...**

Ah, the desert... In general, what more is there to say about them? Perhaps a few pyramids dotted across, maybe some ruins here and there, but definitely an endless sea of sand! However, Sand Ruins was a little different.

For the EX World Grand Prix, an entire colosseum was built. For the tournament hosted by Eggman, the stadium was aptly named the 'Egg Colosseum' and would serve as the starting point for the final race, when all of the losers were weeded out and the winners were left. Nearby were some old ruins, one of which Jet and Wave waited next to. They waited for Storm to arrive with some information from Eggman's base.

"Seriously, that guy takes forever," Wave groaned. It seemed like the muscle of the Babylon Rogues didn't know his way round the region as well as the rest of his team did. "I knew that we shouldn't have-"

"Boss!" a familiar voice called out. Jet smirked. Storm finally returned. "Sorry to keep you waiting for me!" the albatross apologized, rushing ahead to him on his Hurricane. However, failure to brake properly resulted in Storm being thrown off his Gear and onto the sand.

As he picked himself up, Jet rose from where he sat.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

Storm, walking up to his boss, took out the computer chip he found in Eggman's ice base and answered, "Take a look at this."

"Gimme!" Wave said, suddenly snatching the chip from Storm's hand. She then removed the red 'gem' from her necklace and inserted the chip in it. The red 'gem' was a utility device, which meant that it could serve a variety of functions.

One second later, Wave's device produced a green tinted hologram of what appeared to be a document. She and Storm gathered around the hologram, while Jet stood at a short distance. Wave scrolled through the document at a moderately fast face, skim reading it as she went on.

"Could this be...?" she mumbled to herself.

"What is it?" Jet asked.

"It appears to be an entry from Eggman's diary," Wave responded. "This one's about Babylon's treasure and our ancient ancestors!"

That grasped Jet's interest. Immediately, he walked over to the hologram and stood next to Wave as he began to read what the diary entry said.

"Hmm..."

* * *

**_Tuesday, February 21st_**

_Hah hah! I got those bird brains to believe that Babylon's treasure was just a gem. I can't believe that they fell for it. What fools! It's hard to believe, but the real treasure is the ancient, yet advanced technology of the Babylonians. How ironic!_

_I recently found a story about a boy who received Angel Wings that the Babylonians made for him as a gift. According to the story, with those wings, the boy was able to rule the world. But that was just a gift!_

_I am to find this technology as soon as possible. I can just imagine the vast possibilities that could come from using what they must have kept for themselves! _

_Yes, thanks to the Babylonians' technology, maybe my plans for world domination will finally become a reality!_

_Heh heh heh heh heh heh!_

* * *

Wave shut off the hologram and returned her red device to necklace, all with a thoughtful look on her face. Storm, on the other hand, was a little less than happy.

"So, we weren't looking for a gem all this time?" he whined.

"Doesn't sound like we were," Jet said, shrugging his shoulders. Then, he turned around, picked up his personal Gear, the 'Cyclone' (a green Gear with a yellow border around a gray foot plate), and began to walk away. "I guess this was just a wasted effort."

"What?" Wave gasped quietly.

"Too bad, really," her leader continued. "World domination... Advanced technology... To be honest, I haven't the slightest interest in either of them."

"Hey, wait a second, Jet," Wave spoke up, getting his attention. He turned around to see what she had to say. "You said yourself that Eggman may not be as smart as he looks. Well, he really is! If he's interested in this technology, it must have value."

"Value? Are you saying that there's profit in all of this?" Jet asked.

"Think about it. It may be more valuable than finding silver or gold!"

"Hmm..."

At that point, Jet could imagine it all. From there, it was as if he was transported into his own paradise.

In this world, he would have a large safe for his large amount of cash (and he would be in that safe, swimming in his cash!). Jet could imagine himself 100% satisfied with his life, thanks to the riches he would possess. There would be no worry in the world for him to be concerned about. Jet may not have made his wealth by being smarter and tougher than anyone else, but he didn't care! He was happy, darn it!

_"Fastest thing alive? Who cares!? I'm rich, now! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha-"_

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

"Jet?"

"Boss!"

Suddenly, Jet was shaken back to reality.

"Why did you do that!?" Jet shouted at his teammates.

"Sorry, boss..." Storm said quietly.

"I was just swimming in my ca- I mean... I was just having this great daydream!"

The beeping noise Jet tried to shout over was the sound of the alarm clock feature of Wave's utility device. Admittedly, it was getting pretty annoying, so she stopped it. She had the alarm set for a reason other than peeving off Jet and Storm.

"We have to go," she said. "It's time for the race."

"Alright, time to finish this!" Jet responded. As he raised his fist in the air, then brought it down, he said to his teammates, "Finally, we're gonna get the treasure of Babylon!"

And so, the Babylon Rogues hopped on their boards and headed for the Egg Colosseum, to await the final race to begin.

* * *

Well, how do you like that? Tails has suspicions on Eggman's plans! What a worry wart...

By the way, the date 'February 21st' holds some significance. Can you guess why?

Anyway, next time, the EX World Grand Prix will come to an end. Stay tuned for that!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	9. Chapter 8

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

* * *

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 7: Well, to give you a hint (a blatant hint, but a hint nevertheless), what was released on that day?

Yes, swimming in imaginary cash is the hip new thing! Okay, Jet's doing the dog paddle...

Ah, shoot! I forgot to say 'Happy Thanksgiving' at the end of the previous chapter! Happy belated Thanksgiving, I guess...

Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 7: The daydream scene always did remind of Scrooge McDuck. You know, because it's a bird in a room full of cash?

Boy, does Knuckles have no idea what will transpire next!

* * *

**-Chapter 8: Chaos In The Emeralds-**

**At the Egg Colosseum...**

The Egg Colosseum's exterior made it seem as if it were a well known tourist attraction for those who were into ancient history. It was very populated, but for different reasons. Inside the Egg Colosseum, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people gathered, awaiting the final race of the EX World Grand Prix.

The colosseum took up quite the amount of space, in order to make room for the spectators and a round pathway in the middle branched off into four. The racers had to take off from the starting gate and race forward and out of the colosseum. The track came full circle through the opposite exit. Both were below large, red framed monitors, which were shaped like the tournament host's face, mustache and all. The path left of the starting gate served as the entrance and exit for the spectators. Meanwhile, the remaining path led to a set of stairs, which led to an alter for the seven Chaos Emeralds. At this time, three of them were already up. The remaining four were held by the tournament's finalists.

Omochao had the aerial view from a blimp and could see lots of blue, yellow, red and green. Those colors came from the sheer number of flags and banners that the spectators brought with them. Their purpose was to show support for their favorite competitor.

Whether the people of the crowd cheered for Sonic because of his cool and laid back attitude, Tails because of the amount of potential he showed off, Knuckles because of his determination to win or Jet for giving off a sense of mystery, they all knew that they were in for an intense race.

"Sorry for hold up, folks, but now, the competition has reached its final stage!"

Omochao's announcement was met with a gigantic roar of applause from the crowd. After all, it was about time!

"The finalists are pacing, anxiously waiting for the race to begin. Which of them will rise as the champion?"

Near the steps to the alter were the four finalists and some of their supporters. Storm cheered loudly for his boss, Jet, to beat the competition, while Wave gave the hawk a thumbs up. Jet smirked and made his way up to the alter. Amy, having returned from getting her wounds treated, encouraged Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to do their best. However, she addressed Sonic the most, as he and the others made their way up to the alter.

"I'll be cheering you on from over there, Sonic!" she called out to him, pointing at her seat. "And thanks for helping me at Splash Canyon!"

While the four finalists walked upwards, their Gears in hand, Eggman's face appeared on the red framed monitors and the doctor went over the rules for the final race. As he did so, Tails stopped in his tracks, then looked down at his Yellow Tail. One second later, he dismissed the thought that came to his mind and caught up with Sonic and Knuckles. After the trio and Jet arrived at the alter, they placed their Chaos Emeralds on it. Sonic turned to Jet as he placed the yellow Chaos Emerald down.

Noticing this, the hawk said to him, "You know, you're lucky you got this far. It obviously wasn't due to your 'skills'!"

"Hah! I won't lose now!"

Both of them walked away from the alter and down the stairs, Tails and Knuckles following suit.

"Ho ho ho ho ho ho! It's time, everyone!" Eggman declared to the crowd. "Get ready for the final race to begin!"

"The folks at home definitely won't want to miss out on this!" Omochao said, readying himself to record the race. "This is it!"

The racers took their positions behind the orange line. Knuckles cracked his namesakes, confident to show his new rival, Storm, what could have been. Tails, the most nervous of the four, took deep breaths. Sonic and Jet were locked in a staredown with each other for a second, then turned away.

"Get ready," Omochao said, silencing the crowds.

The four racers all saw electricity shoot out from the wing shaped pillars, then backed up from it.

"Three..."

They stopped, ready to dash ahead.

"Two..."

They made their running start.

"One..."

They gradually gained speed.

"Go!"

The electricity disappeared, all four racers made perfect starts and the crowd thundered in applause once again! Meanwhile, Wave and Storm discreetly left the colosseum and made their way around the back to near the end of the track. Wave took Storm behind a ruined wall, hoping that they wouldn't be caught on camera.

Storm noticed a trigger Wave took out and asked, "What's that?"

"This will ensure Jet wins this race," the swallow answered.

"Oh, so that's what you were talking about..."

"That's right, Storm."

"But what if it doesn't work?" the albatross began to question his mechanic friend. "What if that guy's board won't go 'kaboom'?"

"Trust me," Wave assured him. "This will improve the odds, guaranteed!"

Meanwhile, the racers shot out of the colosseum and into the desert. Immediately, they were greeted by three pathways: a seemingly plain left path, a right path under a series of bone arches and a blocked off tunnel in the middle.

Knuckles smashed his way into the tunnel, while Tails leaned to his right and Sonic sped ahead on the left path, with Jet hot on his tail. Jet kick dashed, hoping to get ahead of his hedgehog rival, but said hedgehog seemed to be one step ahead, responding with his own kick dash. However, as Sonic kept the lead, a stream of turbulence shot out of the Blue Star. Seizing the opportunity, Jet hopped on and rode ahead.

Turning around, Sonic noticed the green hawk chasing after him. but turned back to suddenly notice stone pillars rise from the sand. He grinned, then proceeded to swerve around each and every one, slowing both him and Jet down. It was a risk, but Sonic thought to himself that it would be worth it. Aggravated by his little trick, Jet jumped out of the turbulence trail and kick dashed away, getting slightly ahead of the blue hedgehog.

In time, the three split paths met up. Jet clenched his fists at the sight of Tails and Knuckles being able to keep up with him, but regained his cool a second later after seeing what appeared to be a trick ramp. Knuckles kick dashed and jumped off without preparation, while Tails crouched for a longer period of time, hoping to 'charge' his jump. Sonic and Jet kept a balance between being fast and preparing the jump.

Jet was dead set on outshining Sonic, so he performed the same tricks the hedgehog did, only with his own little touches to them. While the two landed perfectly, it was actually Tails who took the lead. The leader of the Babylon Rogues growled at the sight of the Yellow Tail, but Sonic whistled, knowing that things were getting interesting. The two speedsters kick dashed, though they left some turbulence trails for Knuckles, the fourth place holder so far.

A set of grind rails, an air ring ramp and more 'power obstacles' were available to the four finalists and each of them took the one they were most suited to. Sonic stole the rails from Jet, but that didn't stop him from hopping on anyway. The thief leaned forward, hoping to nudge the hedgehog off the rails, but Sonic kept his distance, leaving behind the rather frustrated rogue. The next rail was accessible, but Jet decided to hold his balance as the current rail he was on dipped downwards.

_He can show off all he wants, but it'll all lead to nothing in the end!_

Through a rush of sand from a high cliff, Jet noticed Knuckles punch through another obstacle. For a quick second, the hawk thought that the 'red mutt', as one had put it, was simply getting in the way. He slowed down for a second, giving Knuckles the position ahead of him. Then, he angled the Cyclone in such a manner, that when he kick dashed afterwards, his Gear bumped into the Red Rock so hard, the force threw the echidna off his board.

"Just give up!" Jet cackled away as he rode off.

"Aaargh! I'm gonna get you for that!" Knuckles roared, enraged, as he scrambled for his board. However, in the time it took to stop the Red Rock from being pushed away by the sand and climb back on, Jet was too far ahead. Sonic and even Tails were probably ahead, too. Regardless, he kept moving, not questioning whether his efforts would be in vain.

The spectators at the colosseum cheered for their favorite competitors as they each completed the first lap and moved swiftly along with the second. Unfortunately for Knuckles, he lagged behind, but his determination wasn't led astray. Sonic and Jet were locked between each other and Tails kept a fair lead. The cameras were on him as he once again boosted off the accelerator rings, while Sonic and Jet sped along the rails. The racers came to a second trick ramp and, after jumping off and performing tricks, found themselves in a cave with ruins.

Because the outside light shone into the cave, Jet could still see. He found a a set of neon grind rails and jumped on before Sonic was able to. As the two kept their balance, Jet left some distance between himself and the so called 'fastest thing alive'. The two of them focused on keeping balance and didn't notice Tails use another set of accelerator rings to keep up with them.

After Jet jumped off the rail and landed, he found a set of small, evenly spaced out, trick ramps. He jumped off one and backflipped, hoping to gain a burst of speed from landing perfectly. As it turned out, Sonic ignored the ramps altogether and kick dashed through a gap, getting ahead of both Jet and Tails. The two tailed fox got ready to jump onto the Blue Star's turbulence trail, but the Yellow Tail was suddenly knocked away from where it was supposed to land. The shock of what happened distracted Tails from landing properly and he stumbled to the ground.

"W-What... What happened?" he murmured as he picked himself up from the cold ground. As he looked up, he saw someone he definitely didn't want to see on the turbulence trail: Jet the Hawk!

"I've got no time for you!" the Babylon Rogues' leader called out. "I've got some Emeralds to win!"

Tails clenched his fists at the sound of that voice. The Babylon Rogues were every bit as cunning as he thought! Explosives from Wave, knocked off course by Jet... What could have went wrong next?

Regardless, the rest of the second lap and the entire final lap was pretty much a one on one between Sonic and Jet. At least, that was the case to a few of the spectators, The majority of the them , on the other, continued to cheer for their favorite competitors, whether they were ahead or behind.

Meanwhile, Jet and Sonic arrived at the small set of ramps in the cave after amazing displays during the final lap so far. They took a ramp on the far ends and jumped off, backflipped and kick dashed after perfect landings. The two speedy racers raced through a series of ruby red torches and into another part of the ruins, a much more well lit part of the area. The two sped along a straight path, then had to make sharp drifts around the end of a line of bird statues.

"It's been fun," Jet began to say. "But I've got you now!" He found the perfect opportunity to hop on his rival's turbulence trail and did so, hoping to cruise ahead of the hedgehog in the process.

Sonic smirked, as he knew that Jet would do such a thing. Taking a tip from Tails, he made a very swift 360 turn to generate a tornado just behind the Blue Star. However, Jet, too, smirked, for he predicted that Sonic would pull that trick out of his hat. After crouching for a second, he jumped out of the turbulence trail and kick dashed ahead, knowing that generating the tornado slowed the user down.

"Someone's too slow!" Jet taunted Sonic.

"Hah! We'll see about that!" the hedgehog grinned, kick dashing once more.

The two eventually entered a peculiar looking part of the ruins. After being greeted by some more red torches, Jet and Sonic rode in front of a weird looking mechanism. There were a set of abnormally large bows, with arrowheads for the riders. Seeing no other way out, Jet and Sonic rode both rode on their own one. Suddenly, the bows slow lifted upwards and aimed up at the hole leading to the outside world, where the sun shone radiantly as a complete contrast to the ruins inside.

Like a bowman pulling his arrow back, Jet and Sonic were being pulled back by the giant mechanisms. All cameras were focused on what followed next. In two seconds, the riders were fully pulled back. Then, they waited for what seemed like an eternity. In a sudden instant, the racers were shot out of the cave!

"Woohoo!"

Clearly, Sonic felt the thrill of being sent flying, as demonstrated by the sound he made and the tricks he performed. Jet made no sound, wanting to focus on the race, though that didn't stop him from attempting to outshine the blue hedgehog with his own spins and flips. A thunderous applause was heard from the crowd, meaning that the two were close to finishing the race once and for all.

At the end of the trick show, it was Sonic who landed ahead of Jet. Knowing that he was close to winning, he leaned forward to move faster, but not so fast that the Blue Star would generate a turbulence trail for Jet to take advantage of. Jet awaited it, but to no avail, so he kick dashed away, only getting slightly ahead of Sonic. However, the inch he had ahead of Sonic made him confident that he would win. In a rush, the hawk kick dashed again, but Sonic responded once again with his own kick dash.

Swerving ahead of Jet, he span round again to create another tornado. This time, Jet couldn't do anything to avoid getting caught in it. The swirl of wind threw Jet up into the air.

"What the heck!?" he screamed. "Noooooo!"

The crowds erupted in another applause as Sonic sped ahead of the hawk. As the hedgehog moved ahead, the turbulence trail his Gear generated moved along with it, making it so Jet couldn't just hop on and cruise along. All the hawk could do was lag behind.

However, little did Sonic know it, there was someone hiding behind a certain wall he passed. Well, more like 'two someones'. The much smaller of the duo held a trigger with a red button.

"Ooh, it's time," Storm chuckled.

"Be quiet, Storm!" Wave snarled, noticing Sonic head for the Egg Colosseum. "I don't want anyone catching us!"

The swallow's frown of frustration curled upwards into a smirk. Then, Wave pressed the button.

As Jet rode on to finish his race in defeat, he couldn't help but hear a large 'boooom' sound from the colosseum. Curious, he sped ahead with a series of kick dashes. At the Egg Colosseum, where the thousands of people gasped in horror as to what happened, Jet saw Sonic on the ground. To that, he let a really loud cackle ring out as he approached the colosseum. The crowds cheered once again as Jet crossed the finish line for the third and final time.

_The moment's... finally here! Just as I expected! I finally won the tournament!_

After Tails and Knuckles finished the race, they looked upwards to see a replay of what had just played out.

"Yes, folks. In a sudden turn of events, Jet has come out on top!" Omochao shouted over his microphone, clearly ecstatic.

"And with that, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for our green feathered friend to come up and take his prize!" Eggman declared.

From that point, Jet knew that he had to do, but he had a little gloating to do first. He walked over to Sonic, who still lied on the ground, and smirked.

"Ah, the dirt suits you well!"

Then, taking out a peculiar looking crystal box, he picked up his Gear and walked up the alter, where the seven Chaos Emeralds were.

Sonic slammed his fist down in frustration, while Tails looked down at him with a very worried look on his face. Knuckles, meanwhile, shook in pure rage at what Jet had just said to Sonic and felt the urge to pick him up and throw him to the wall.

At the alter, Jet held his crystal box up high. To everyone's shock and surprise, it started glowing in a bright aura. Then, all of a sudden, the Chaos Emeralds began to shine in the same colored aura that Jet's box did. A calm whirring sound rang, as the auras became whiter and whiter. The next everyone saw was the Emeralds floating!

"What? What's going on?" one of the spectators gasped.

"Can he use the power of the Emeralds?" another speculated.

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting really freaked out!" a third said.

Slowly, the Chaos Emeralds began to move. They moved outwards and around Jet, forming a circle. The red Emerald was directly in front. Then, in clockwise order, the blue one followed, along with, yellow, green, white, cyan and purple. In the circle they formed, they continued to orbit Jet. Next, from the crystal box, seven beams of light shone into the Chaos Emeralds, the colors of which matched the Emeralds. The glow in the box itself repeatedly flashed into those seven colors, then was released in one giant light beam. Jet had an idea as to what was going on , but kept it to himself and remained calm. He saw the large beam of light shoot out of the Egg Colosseum and far into the desert. It angled itself downwards, as if something underground attracted it towards itself.

After a few seconds of stillness, all of the light beams from Jet's box disappeared.

As if things couldn't get any crazier, the earth rumbled and an enormous dust cloud formed. As the dust dispersed, all could see an equally gigantic mass of land rise from the desert region of Sand Ruins. One giant island was surrounded by four smaller islands, which were connected by a ring of a pathway and connected with the main island with other pathways. What appeared to be temples occupied each island, but the middle island's temple was the largest and had a golden dome instead of white ones, like the rest.

As everyone gasped in amazement, Jet came to a realization.

Looking at his crystal box, he said to himself, "So that was the key..."

He looked out at the floating mass of land.

"And this... This is... Babylon Garden..."

* * *

Sigh... Cheaters, floating land... What could possibly happen next? Well, if you've played the game, you would know. But for the sake of the story, I'll leave it until next time. Stay tuned, everyone!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	10. Chapter 9

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

* * *

Before I begin, I would like to say a big thank you to '_Darkspartan487_' for adding this story to their alerts and favorites.

* * *

Reply to _likliklik_'s review of Chapter 3: One thing I never understood about the game was why no one found out about that bomb...

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 8: You seemed quite down in that review. Was something wrong?

Reply to _Sonic 2_'s review of Chapter 8: Glad you enjoyed that chapter!

Yes, the Babylon Rogues are quite the cheaters...

* * *

**-Chapter 9: Race For The Treasure-**

Suddenly, a metal grabber reached out and swiped Jet's crystal box from his hand!

"Hohohohohoho! Now I'll get the treasure of Babylon!"

Jet turned behind him to see a rather round evil scientist on his pod. Eggman was up to no good all along!

"Oh no!" Amy screamed as she rushed up the stairs. She took a huge leap and grabbed onto the Eggmobile, hoping to knock Babylon Garden's key away from the hovercraft's grabber. Alas, the pink hedgehog found herself whisked away as the Eggmobile took off.

"Eggman!" Jet growled. "Steal my treasure, will you?" He ran down the alter's steps and out of the Egg Colosseum to find his teammates. He figured that they would need to board the airship to catch up.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles regrouped, as they, too, drew up a plan to get Eggman.

"We'll need to ride the Tornado to get him at this rate!" Tails said.

"But we didn't exactly bring it with us, did we?" Knuckles groaned. "How are we gonna-"

"No problem," Tails smiled, as he took out a small blue remote and pressed the button. "I made this 'Tornado Remote' to bring said plane to where we are whenever we want!"

"Thinking ahead, are we?" Sonic grinned. "You always know what to do! But, uh... How long will it take, Tails?"

"From Future City to this colosseum, it shouldn't take too long," the two tailed fox responded. Turning around, he saw that the people were in panic. "For now, we should assure everyone that we'll take care of things."

The assurance received mixed responses, from cries of impatience to praise for the heroes. As the three did so, a blue biplane came into view. But there was no pilot!

"Ah, there it is!" Tails called out, pointing to the Tornado. The Tornado 2, to be specific. Unfortunately, the original was destroyed in a previous adventure... "Sonic! Knuckles! Let's go!"

"Right!" the two responded, following their fox friend to the biplane. Tails took the pilot seat, while Knuckles took the passenger seat behind and Sonic took his place on one of the upper wings. The engine whirred, once everyone was in position, the biplane moved forward and gained speed, until eventually being lifted from the ground, as the wheels retracted, and into the air.

"Let's do this!" Sonic cheered, as the Tornado 2 boosted ahead in the darkening sky.

* * *

**Around Babylon Garden..**

For some reason, Babylon Garden rose higher and higher. From the ground, no one noticed at first, but it became apparent eventually. Regardless of what the public thought, Tails continued to pilot his biplane over to the magnificent Babylon Garden. On the way, he, Sonic and Knuckles noticed a giant red airship, which was also headed for Babylon Garden. As the Tornado boosted forward and next to one of the windows, Sonic glanced over to it. In the airship, he noticed Jet steering it!

"You're after Eggman, too?" the hedgehog asked loudly.

"Don't get the wrong idea! I'm not on your side! I'm after the treasure Eggman's trying to steal from me!"

"Speaking of that guy..." Sonic glanced back to Babylon Garden, where Tails was ready to land his biplane. There, he could see Eggman riding along a brown path, as the Eggmobile suddenly transformed into what looked like a moped. Sonic, imagining the mustached scientist grinning to himself, got ready to jump out of the Tornado and take him down once again, but was interrupted.

"Wait, Sonic!" Tails called out to him. "Use this!" The fox reached out for a board that was stashed inside the Tornado, then passed it onto his blue friend. It had a sleeker design than the Blue Star, but functioned similarly. However, Tails predicted that it would perform better.

"Wait, you mean to tell me..." Knuckles started to say.

"Yep, that's right," Tails responded. Turning to Sonic, he said to him, "It's a new Gear I prepped up for you, just in case your old one somehow got destroyed."

"Convenient, isn't it?" Knuckles mumbled to himself.

"It is..." Tails sighed, remembering what happened to Sonic's Blue Star.

"Man, the list of things I couldn't do without you goes on, Tails!" Sonic spoke up. "Thanks!"

"We'll try to get Eggman from in front of him!" Knuckles told him. "You take him from behind and trap him between us!"

"Alright, I'm heading out now!" Sonic grinned. With the Blue Star 'Model II' in hand, he made his jump from the Tornado.

"Good luck, Sonic!" Tails shouted from above him.

Turning his attention to the Tornado, the fox continued to fly around Babylon Garden for a place to land it, while Knuckles kept his eye on Eggman, warning Tails as to where the doctor was headed next.

"Hmm... Over there!" Knuckles said, pointing to a large patch of grass near some ruins. "Land the plane there!"

"I'm on it!"

Tails switched the Tornado to landing gear. With the command set, the wheels of the biplane returned and the biplane began its slow descent. With careful positioning and angling, Tails and Knuckles were in for a smooth landing. After the two got off and retrieved their Gears, they were treated with a sight of several ancient relics, scattered across the grass.

"Wow, this place looks just as old as Angel Island," Knuckles commented.

"Could they have coexisted?" Tails wondered aloud. "Maybe I should find out someday!" But there wasn't any time to ponder at this moment in time. "Knuckles, let's go."

Before Knuckles could hop on the Red Rock, however, he and Tails looked upwards to see another aircraft begin to land. As it neared the ground and as the propellers' whirs grew louder, the two realized that it was the same red airship from earlier. They felt the air pushed against them, thanks to the propellers blowing it in that direction, but it died down after a few seconds. The doors opened.

Then, out came two familiar looking birds!

"Oh man. We have company," Wave sighed, turning her attention to Tails. At the same time, Storm pumped his fists at the sight of Knuckles and slowly walked up to him.

"So, you wanna rumble, huh?" Knuckles said.

"I may have lost that race to you, but I'm gonna get back at you. Right here, right now!"

As the two powerhouses glared at each other and Tails backed away in fear, he couldn't help but hear rustling from a large bush nearby. Suddenly, a whole slew of mysterious figures jumped out and circled around their four targets!

"Robots!" Tails gasped. "But how!?"

"TARGETING. TARGETING," the red robot, who looked like the leader of the group droned. Then, pointing to Tails, Knuckles, Wave and Storm, it gave the command to the rest of his unit. "ATTACK! ATTACK!"

As the swarm of robots made their move and charged towards their enemies, Knuckles stepped forward and said to Storm, "We'll have to set our fight aside for now! These guys are getting in our way!"

"I never thought I'd agree with you!" Storm replied, rushing ahead and smashing one robot to pieces.

Tails and Wave knew what to do, in order to fight the machines and went ahead to help out their teammates to fight.

* * *

**Meanwhile, On The Other Side...**

As Sonic fell from the sky, he placed his feet on the board to get an initial feel for the updated Blue Star. To him, it felt slightly lighter, for he was able to perform a backflip faster than he could with the original model. In his mind, the lighter weight translated to faster movement speed!

Sonic eyed Babylon Garden, but turned to his right when he heard the sound of someone else jump out and hop on his board.

"Jet..." Sonic said to himself.

The two landed on a path with brown railings, where the road itself was made of a gray concrete. Jet kick dashed ahead, but Sonic caught up in time.

"You can't catch up with him!" Jet told him. "Get out of my way!"

"And why should I?" the hedgehog smirked.

"I told you! When it comes to Extreme Gear, I blow you out of the water!"

"Is that so?" Sonic kept his cool, which confused and angered the bird at the same time.

"How can you be so confident, when you lost the World Grand Prix!?"

"Heh heh..."

"What now!?"

Jet turned to where Sonic was facing, straight ahead. For some reason, there was a dull brown ramp at the end of the road. Jet knew exactly what he had to do.

"Take a look at this," Sonic said. "I'll show you what true speed really is!"

* * *

That end quote is probably my favorite line in the entire game! There's something about it that just screams 'Yeah, it's endgame!'.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, tune in next time for the final race in the Heroes storyline!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	11. Chapter 10

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

* * *

Reply to _likliklik_'s review of Chapter 9: Trying to hitch a ride on the Eggmobile was quite the random move, wasn't it? I know Amy tried to stop Eggman, but still...

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 9: I tend to worry about people often, sometimes for no reason. You did seem quite optimistic in your previous reviews, though, so I had to ask.

Sounds like you have it tough. Pretty dark stuff you said... Unfortunately, all I can do is hope that things will get better for you and everyone you know. Perhaps this next chapter will help ease your pain?

* * *

**-Chapter 10: Even Without Wings-**

Both racers, Sonic and Jet, kick dashed, attempting to take the lead from each other. Surprised, Jet noticed how much faster Sonic had gotten. However, upon a quick look at Sonic's Gear's thrust trails (two green lines, not just one), he figured out why Sonic was pulling ahead.

"So, you realized that your Gear wasn't up to scratch with mine!" the hawk taunted Sonic. "But how did you exactly tune it up so quickly?"

"Hey, don't underestimate what Tails can do!" Sonic reminded him, as he and Jet jumped off the incoming ramp and flipped and turned about with finesse. "Without him building this new Gear, I wouldn't be in this situation!"

"Really?" the Babylon Rogue smirked, as he and Sonic landed on the road. "Let's see what this new Gear can do against my Cyclone!"

"You're on!"

The two racers rode into a series of stone archways, Sonic keeping a steady lead against his opponent. Exiting the archway, Sonic knew that he had to put his drifting skills to the ultimate test, by making a sharp turn around a bending road without railings on the outer edge!

To some, they would have given quite the scare by the mere thought of doing such a thing! For Sonic, there was no struggle. In fact, because of the blowing wind, the hedgehog felt all the more confident with himself. Jet, on the other hand, felt nothing but stress, thanks to the fact that the blue spiny rat had been keeping up! However, said 'rat' left behind a turbulence trail that Jet easily took advantage of, gaining speed and eventually stealing the lead as the two rode around the bend.

Afterwards, they found themselves swerving back and forth through an obstacle course of rocky pillars. Jet, having experience with dodging lots of obstacles, maneuvered through with little difficulty. Sonic strayed from the turbulence trail the Cyclone created and focused on getting his own breathing room, by moving away from Jet.

To the side, the speedster noticed something peculiar: a grind rail. In a place like Babylon Garden? It certainly looked a little out of place, since the neon colors of the rail stood out from the bleak appearance of Babylon Garden.

_Weird design choice, guys..._

However, any advantage to take was better than none. Sonic jumped on with the Blue Star on foot and let those sparks fly. In a place of a very high altitude, he couldn't help to grin to himself. He enjoyed the heart pounding sensation that seeped into his mind. Once again, it was a complete contrast from Jet's train of thought, which primarily focused on defeating Sonic. As such, the hawk found himself rather frustrated at the sight of Sonic passing by him, thanks to a rail shortcut.

The two then approached a bend on the road, albeit a much less sharp bend than the previous. Jet snagged the inside path, leaving Sonic to either take the outer route and close in on him, or take advantage of the turbulence. He quickly decided on the latter. While Jet made the turn, Sonic shifted his weight to the right, noticing that he could actually move inside a turbulence trail! His movement was a little more restricted, yes, but it still piqued his interest.

The road straightened up. Then,Jet decided to do what Sonic did and spin around, creating a tornado behind the Cyclone. Grinning to himself, Sonic leaned to the right edge of the turbulence trail, crouched and took a large jump, performing a nose grab in the process, narrowly dodging Jet's tornado.

"You must think that you're pretty good because of that silly trick," Jet sneered.

"Well, I don't really consider myself bad at-"

"EMERGENCY ALERT!" an obnoxiously loud alarm blared, interrupting Sonic. "EMERGENCY ALERT! PREPARE TO REPEL INTRUDERS!"

"What's this all about now?" Sonic groaned.

As the message repeated itself, he and Jet suddenly saw an explosion erupt just ahead of themselves. They pulled off the Extreme Gear's equivalent of 'hitting the brakes' and had to shield their faces from it all! Smoke emerged from the point of impact, but in a few moments, it dispersed, revealing a change in the course for Sonic and Jet's race.

The two opened their eyes. They found an entire section of the track missing!

"What!?" they both yelped in shock.

However, instantly, they noticed an abnormally large stream of air emerge from the gaping pit to the surface below. Turbulence, in a place like this? Alongside it, a fleet of fighter planes flew by.

"This places confuses me," Sonic said, scratching his head. "Where could these guys have gotten the technology for this?"

"I'm not so sure myself," Jet admitted, though he knew what to do. "But enough talk. Are you gonna run out of this and hide because of what you see, Sonic?"

"I reckon that you're more chicken than I am!" he responded, hopping on his board and getting ready to go.

Sonic and Jet rode their Gears off into the large turbulence trail and were propelled forward faster than Jet could counter what Sonic said. Hearts pumped faster and rushes of adrenaline were felt as the turbulence trail carried the two past a large tower and further upwards in the sky than they were before, the fighter planes ascending along with them.

As Babylon Garden became more and more distant and appeared smaller and smaller, very dark vortex of clouds swirled around the racers. In time, they noticed sparks of lightning shoot out (luckily, the bolts didn't look like they were able to reach them and shock them). Feeling daring, Sonic swung himself left and right in the large turbulence trail, gaining enough speed to leap out and perform a clockwise turn. Landing, he gained a burst of speed to get ahead of Jet.

Unfortunately, as the dark vortex of clouds eventually dispersed, revealing the lighter gray sky, the stream of turbulence that carried Sonic and Jet high in the sky just disappeared.

"Well, that was rather short lived..." they sighed, falling down nearly just as fast as they were carried upwards. Seeing no sign of ground whatsoever, they had to hold onto both ends of their Gears, bracing themselves for eventual impact.

After a few seconds of feeling a rush of air smack their faces, the two noticed some stray fighter planes flying by. Patrol planes, perhaps? Regardless, they decided to hitch a ride on two of them, confident that they would fly over some ground. Being that the planes flew at the exact same speed as each other, Sonic and Jet found themselves neck and neck in this sky race. As they felt more air rush on their faces, the two laid eyes on small structures of Babylon Garden once more. Jet hopped out of his plane, backflipped like Sonic would (presumably to show off) and landed. As for the blue hedgehog himself, he kept hold of his fighter plane, wanting to feel the rush for a little longer. He whistled at the beauty of the view.

"Man, the others are definitely missing out!" he told himself, before noticing a weirdly set of grind rails. "Hmm... Has Jet even noticed them yet?"

He smirked once more. He let go of his plane, but he wasn't aiming to land on the brown road. He steered himself towards the rails! He held onto the Blue Star, adjusting its angle and pointing direction meanwhile. Sonic had pulled off extreme jumps before, but none at this high of an altitude! The very thought of potentially messing up and plummeting down to the surface fueled Sonic's adrenaline even more! However, thanks to the sound of metal grinding against metal, he was able to breathe easily.

He wasn't done yet, however. He knew he wasn't. Feeling constant adrenaline rushes was one thing, but putting Jet in his place was, at this point in time, became his priority. Sonic leaned forward, increasing his grinding speed as he rode below the course, around its side and back above it. At the end of the rail, he jumped off, showing off another trick in front of Jet. Afterwards, all that remained was a straight path to the finish, which they both assumed was the large temple ahead.

The speed of Sonic's Gear ensured his initial lead, but Jet's experience with Extreme Gear made it so he stole it in a matter of seconds. With a kick dash, Sonic pulled ahead, but Jet responded with his own kick dash, attempting to take the lead once more. He was pulled into the Blue Star's turbulence, which seemed like a good sign. The Babylon Rogue expected Sonic to pull off the stupid tornado trick again, so he leaped out of the turbulence trail.

He leaned forward as he jumped, hoping that the extra distance would give him the lead and the victory. Blinded by his desire to win, he didn't notice that he was positioned at the wrong angle. As a result of this, the Cyclone toppled over, bringing the rider with it. At that moment, Jet knew that he had lost.

Sonic, having heard the contact with the ground Jet made, merely teased him, saying, "Even without wings, I can still fly!"

The response he got was a low growl and a slam on the ground. Jet, the leader of the Babylon Rogues, lost to a silly, overconfident hedgehog! There was no way this was happening to him! Before he could say a word to Sonic, he saw him head for the temple, with one final thing to do.

"There you are, Eggman!" he heard Sonic call out. Picking himself and the Cyclone up, he went to see what was going on.

The bad guy himself stood in front of dark blue stone doors, holding the crystal box he knew as the key to Babylon Garden and its treasure in his hand. As Eggman saw his longtime nemesis approach him, he reached over to the nearby bush for something. Well, someone.

"Look before you move!" the scientific genius chuckled, holding a certain pink hedgehog in front of Sonic.

"Let go of me, you mustached monkey!" Amy yelled, struggling to break free from the villain's grasp.

"Amy..." Sonic mouthed, but didn't actually say. As weird as Amy could be, he knew that holding a girl hostage was no good!

"Watch, but don't interfere," Eggman said to him. "Just be a good hedgehog and stay still." He grinned as he faced the door again, but didn't notice Sonic crouch on his Blue Star, building up power for an incredibly high jump.

A sudden burst of wind forced Eggman and Amy to shield their eyes. Assuming that Sonic was nowhere to be seen, they could only hear a voice from above.

"Can you catch the wind?"

The rush of air died down. Eggman and Amy could uncover their eyes again. However, all they saw was a stray leaf blow away.

"W-Where are you!?" Eggman gasped, not knowing what was to come next. He heard Sonic's voice taunt him in response. He saw the blue hedgehog himself up in the air, but before the scientist could guess what had happened, he found himself swirled upwards in a tornado, along with Amy, losing the crystal box in the process.

As for Sonic, he had no idea where Eggman was headed, or why he dared to put Amy in danger. Regardless, he noticed the crystal box head for ground and caught it before any damage was done. Still descending to the ground himself, he tossed the box over to Jet, who couldn't process how that event even carried itself out. For a moment, Jet was in a speechless state, while noticing Sonic's sidekicks, Tails and Knuckles, head to the scene.

"I don't want your pity, nor do I need it!" the hawk finally snarled, wanting to retain his pride, despite the loss. "I lost, after all, so don't play games with me!"

"Jet-" Sonic began to say, before being interrupted by another voice.

"Are you crazy!?" Wave gasped. "If they don't want it, why shouldn't we take it?"

"Yes, take it, boss!" Storm agreed with his swallow companion. "Treasure is treasure, right?"

All that had happened... Winning the EX World Grand Prix, just to lose to one of the finalists in another race... Inside, Jet was broken down. On the other hand, he couldn't let his teammates down. He didn't want to look like a depressed leader. That wasn't what his father taught him, was it? No. He was told to show pride and move on, regardless of what happened.

"C'mon, Jet!"

"Boss, let's get outta here!"

With that in mind, Jet took one look at Sonic, then left the scene with Wave and Storm.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles had other plans.

"Man. Those three are quite the group..." Knuckles could only say.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "But now that they're off doing their thing, I think it's time we left now. Tails?"

"Well, of course," the fox smiled. "But not before-"

"Soooniiic?" a voice rang out, interrupting him. It sounded familiar, though not very suitable for the situation. Everything was over. Well, not everything. Someone needed to give an explanation.

"A-Amy?"

"How could you dive into Eggman, knowing that I was there!?"

"Well... Uh... I thought that it would be okay with you... because... Uh..."

Time was up. The look on Amy's face turned into that of rage. Horrified at what was to happen next (and boy, did his face show!), Sonic made a run for it!

"Sonic! Come back here! This time, I won't forgive you!"

Tails laughed, Knuckles covered his face in shame and everything else was back to normal.

Or, so they hoped...

* * *

Bah, what a cheesy way to end a chapter! But of course, the story isn't over yet. Where are the Babylon Rogues headed for next? Could what they do next force them and Sonic and friends into one final confrontation?

Regardless of whether you know or not, stay tuned, everyone!

* * *

**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	12. Chapter 11

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

* * *

Reply to _ABCSonicKirbyWarriors_' review of Chapter 10: Ah, I see. Well, it's good to know that you're feeling better now.

Best wishes to you, too!

Reply to _likliklik'_s review of Chapter 10: Guns? As much as I like a change of pace, we already have one hedgehog that tried to be edgy with a gun! However, a crossover with Time Crisis sounds interesting. Granted, I haven't played much of it, but still...

Amy was mad at Sonic because she was put in harm's way. Without her knowing that it would happen, no less!

* * *

**-Chapter 11: Treasure Trouble-**

After their little exchange with each other, Jet, Wave and Storm made their way to the stone doors that Eggman once stood. They eyed them in anticipation. Once they were open, the treasure of Babylon Garden would finally be theirs! However, to open the doors, a certain key was required. Jet looked at the crystal box he held in his hand. It emitted a dim glow.

"Ooh, I can't wait!" Storm spoke in excitement.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I'm getting a bit tingly inside, too," Wave giggled. "C'mon, Jet. Open the doors."

"Okay, let's go!" Jet said, raising his crystal box, which shone brighter at the presence of the temple.

A hum rang in the air, a creaking sound contrasting with the higher pitched noise. Slowly, the doors gave way to the interior of Babylon Garden's largest and most important temple. A white glow interfered with the view briefly, but dimmed after a second or two. With beaks agape, Jet, Wave and Storm thought that they were looking into a completely different dimension. They took a step inside to find that it was all real.

Around them, they saw a checkered floor made of refined marble. They were afraid that their shoes tarnished the red carpet fit for royalty, so they hopped on their Gears and slowly rode onwards. The walls and ceiling appeared to be made of pure gold and dotting around the perimeter of the temple were a plethora of treasures, such as a ruby talisman, a chalice adorned with sapphires and a gold box studded with emeralds. The temple interior and everything in it looked polished, free of any stain, as if it was just built. It was quite a shock, considering that Jet, Wave and Storm were aware that their lineage went back to ancient times!

What intrigued them, however, was the set of gold doors at the back of the temple. What purpose did it serve, other than being an emergency exit?

"Grrrrrrrrrrr!"

Suddenly, a deep voice sounded and those doors opened. Intrigued, the three rode in.

Outside the temple, Sonic continued to run away from Amy, taking cover behind Tails and Knuckles. The four of them heard the voice from inside growl.

"W-What was that?" Amy asked, ducking for cover behind Sonic, who merely had a smirk on his face.

"First, the Grand Prix. Now, this? Interesting..."

"But where did that noise come from?" Knuckles asked.

Tails, having seen the temple doors wide open, pointed a finger to it, saying to everyone, "It might have come from over there."

"Let's check it out, why don't we?" Sonic grinned.

The four grabbed their Gears and rode in the large temple, only to be dazzled at the sight of a pure gold room. However, they were confused at the fact that there was another set of doors inside.

"That must be where the noise came from!" Tails told everyone, before he saw those doors slowly close, sealing the other room.

"Let's go!" Sonic called out. "Now!" The heroes made haste and rode into the room that the gold doors were sealing. As the made it, the doors slammed behind them.

* * *

**In A Dark Area...**

Was it a room? Was it the outside world? No one could fathom where they were or why the place existed. All anyone could see was that the blue floored 'room' was much larger than the temple itself, to everyone's shock and surprise. Over a distance, Sonic and friends could see Jet and his team. The groups rode to each other.

"Hey, Jet!" Sonic shouted across to him. "Do you have an idea where or what this place is?"

"I... I feel that I should know," Jet began to talk. "But-"

Interrupting the hawk was the appearance of a bright blue orb of light in between the two groups. As everyone backed away, a figure started to form from the orb. Meanwhile, a deep voice spoke from it.

"Greedy fools... Those who seek treasure will find only..."

"They'll only find what, you creep?" Knuckles responded.

The mysterious figure grew in size, towering over the seven that were present. Eventually, the figure's shape changed. Underneath an oddly shaped bottle, a purple hawk appeared in front of everyone.

"Strong words, for such a little creature," he said to Knuckles.

"What did you say!?" the red echidna snarled, readying his fist and getting ready to charge at the figure, but was stopped by Amy.

"Who are you?" Tails asked the large being. "And what are you doing here?"

"I am Angelus, the Babylon Guardian," said being answered. "I guard Babylon's treasure!"

"Too bad for you, pal," Jet spoke up. "I'm gonna take the treasure from you!"

"And what gives you the right to do that, hmm?" Angelus responded.

"He's Jet, the leader of the Babylon Rogues!" Storm called out. "If you guard Babylon's treasure, you don't have the right to talk back to the boss like that!"

"So, you're the Babylon Rogues? In that case, you will never have the treasure!" the Babylon Guardian sneered.

"And why not?" Wave questioned him.

"Millennia ago, it was your greedy ancestors that have sealed me here, guarding Babylon's treasure from anyone who dared to steal it," Angelus answered. "Hypocritical fools! Protecting something they hold dear to them, while they go off and steal treasures that others care about!"

Enraged, the Guardian began to charge a light purple energy ball in his hands, demonstrating the power he possessed. As he released the attack, his enemies grabbed their boards and spread out, dodging the incoming blast.

"Man! Someone bears quite the grudge!" Sonic said.

"Any accomplice to the Babylon Rogues will suffer the same fate as them!" Angelus roared. As he raised his hands, there was a giant flash. Then, the area around everyone suddenly changed completely.

Instead of a blue floor, there was barren ground. Black pillars had risen from it. Meanwhile, the darkness above was replaced with a red sky. Everyone was warped close to each other in one bunch, with Angelus himself, with his arms crossed, in front of them.

"Ah! We've made him mad!" Amy shrieked. "What are we gonna do!?"

"We probably need to defeat Angelus to get out of this place!" Tails said to everyone.

"What are we waiting for?" Sonic responded, stepping to the front of the group. "Let's do this!"

"Very well," Angelus replied. "If you will not leave here by choice, you will do so by force!"

Knuckles and Storm hastily kick dashed ahead and everyone else followed suit, while the Babylon Guardian floated backwards, daring the smaller creatures to face him. The two powerhouses cleared the way for the rest by smashing some of the black pillars away, so that the others didn't have to slow down and maneuver around obstacles.

Upon hearing Wave's instruction, Knuckles and Storm backed away, allowing the wrench wielding swallow some room. With as much force as she could, she tossed it at Angelus, who, unfortunately, flicked it aside, like a fly. The strange being responded by stretching out an arm and firing several small energy balls at her taking advantage of a lack of means of defense. However, thanks to swings from Amy's trademark hammer, the attacks were volleyed back at him.

As Angelus was distracted, Jet leaped with his Cyclone and delivered a spin kick at him. He tried to follow it up with a smack on the face with his board, but the Guardian recovered too quickly and swung his fist at the hawk, sending him to the dead ground. Luckily, Storm kick dashed to where he was headed and caught him before he made contact with the ground.

"You alright, boss?" Storm asked.

"Just fine," Jet responded, jumping from the albatross' arms and back on his board. "This fight's just getting started!"

As the two kick dashed away, Jet eyes caught the sight of Tails hurling Sonic, who was curled into a ball, at Angelus' upper chest. The hedgehog uncurled upon rebound to stick his tongue at his opponent, then curled back into his ball and homed in on the lower part of his opponent's chest. Still, even that combo attack didn't do too much damage to the Babylon Guardian, who slammed his hand at the blue hedgehog, sending him crashing towards Jet. The two tumbled backwards a bit and groaned in slight pain.

"Heh heh, sorry about that," Sonic apologized with a slight grin on his face as he recovered.

"Maybe you should watch where you attack this guy," Jet scolded him sarcastically. "He'll send you flinging straight away from himself!"

As Sonic watched the others launch attacks at and take counterattacks from Angelus, he sighed, "Man, nothing's working against this guy."

At the sight of Angelus charging another large energy ball, everyone kick dashed away, splitting into two groups and. What no one expected, though, was that he thrust his hands to the sides, splitting the energy ball in two. It was then that the Guardian launched the attacks, covering more ground and actually damaging the two groups.

"Bwahahaha! Is this all that you have?" Angelus laughed. Laying eyes on Sonic and Jet, who weren't even aimed at with the previous attack, he said to them, "Now, what will you do?"

"What will we do? I think we're gonna step it up a little!" Sonic smirked, rushing towards Angelus.

"As much as I hate to agree with Sonic, it looks like it's time to retire you from your position!" Jet smirked also, chasing after him with Sonic.

"Very well," the Babylon Guardian responded, floating backwards quickly. "Come, if you dare!"

"You won't get away with that slow of a pace, buddy!" Sonic taunted him, kick dashing to pick up speed, with Jet following suit. The Guardian thrust his hands forward, then fired a volley of energy blasts at the two.

Because the speedsters were caught in dodging the incoming blasts, they didn't notice Tails fly towards the fray. Having recovered from the previous attack on him, the fox needed to find a weak spot Angelus possessed to take advantage of. Ducking in and out of cover, he quickly analyzed the situation and scanned the Guardian's body with his eyes. He looked at the bottom part of the body, to find a dark purple bottle below it.

"What? Were we so caught up in the battle, we didn't notice that?" he gasped to himself. Hearing footsteps, he turned behind to see Knuckles, Amy, Wave and Storm, who all recovered from the damage inflicted on them.

"Well, what do we do now, Miles?" Wave asked the fox, placing joking emphasis on the name 'Miles'.

"Look there," he said, pointing at the bottle Angelus hovered over. "I think that Angelus' weak point is right there!"

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Amy spoke up. "We need to help out Sonic!" On that note, everyone spread out and closed in on the Babylon Guardian.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Jet grew annoyed at having to leap upwards and attack their enemy. Going by a change of plans, they decided to attack the lower parts of the body. It was after Sonic homed in on Angelus' gut when he took notice of the big guy's bottle.

_Huh... Just a hedgehog's hunch, but maybe I should hit him th- Woah!_

Dodging Angelus' hand slamming the ground interrupted his thoughts. However, he knew what he and Jet had to do next.

"Hey, Sonic!" he heard Tails call to him.

"Tails! Feeling better, huh?"

"That's right!" the hedgehog heard Knuckles say to him. "Sonic, trying attacking that bottle over there!"

"Hey, that's exactly what I was thinking!" Sonic smirked. "But that guy keeps moving around! If I'm gonna blast through full force-"

"Don't worry about that, Sonic!" Amy said, interrupting him. "I'll distract him!"

"Hey, wait!" Sonic's calls were ignored. The pink hedgehog set her mind straight on helping out in the battle.

Angelus noticed Amy head towards him and fired an energy ball at her, only to see rebound on Amy's hammer and fly back at him. Taking decisive action, he swiped the ball away with one hand, then fired another with the other hand. Amy jumped back, but saw another one head right towards her, so she swung her hammer and to send the ball flying. Angelus quickly grew tired of the little game and charged up a big attack once again. His pink opponent took a fighting stance, ready to smack it back at him, but she noticed a blue streak speed by and smash through the bottle below the Babylon Guardian.

For some reason, the large being writhed in pain, feeling a strong force blast upwards onto him. Of course, someone had to find out about his weak point eventually! However, there was no time to be angry about it. Turning into a purple cloud of dust, he rushed into the bottle, which warped away from the area.

"Well, looks like you were right, shorty," Wave admitted. "That attack Sonic aimed there got him good!"

"But where did Ange... Angeli... that Guardian!" Storm took a deep breath, then asked his question for real. "Where did that Guardian go?"

"It's not over yet," Knuckles told the albatross. "I know he's somewhere." Just then, everyone saw the bottle high in the red sky. An orb of light rose out of it and Angelus formed once again. Speak of the devil!

"So, you are not as weak as I though you would be," he commented. "But... You haven't seen my true power yet!"

"Bring it on, Angie!" Sonic taunted him, taking a fighting stance with his Gear before everyone else followed suit.

The chase was on and the seven Extreme Gear riders set their sights on Angelus' bottle, his weak point. With that in mind, while he floated backwards, the Babylon Guardian dropped splashes of energy on the ground as mines, forcing his opponents to slow down as they swerved past them. As they were distracted, he released a flurry of energy balls from his right hand, slamming his left hand down on anyone who neared him.

It was safe to say that Sonic and the others had to keep on their toes to defeat the Babylon Guardian. As long as his hands were free, he could prevent them from reaching the bottle easily. Storm swerved to the left, where a stray pillar was, winded up his fist and smashed it right at Angelus, only to see the pillar caught with one hand. Though it was thrown back at him, the albatross smashed past it and kick dashed, keeping up with the rest of the team.

"Your foolish distractions will not work on me!" Angelus claimed, firing an energy ball at Storm's Hurricane Gear, sending Storm himself flying backwards. However, he picked himself up from his feet quicker than the Babylon Guardian had hoped and kick dashed once more, getting in up close to Angelus and narrowly dodging the projectile attacks launched at him.

"Heh heh heh!" Storm chuckled.

"I grow tired of these games, albatross!" the Guardian snarled, lunging for his opponent and swinging his fist at him, knocking off his board. Immediately after, he found himself taking a wrench to the face. He turned to Wave, who had a Bowling Bomb ready.

Riding at the front of the pack, she dodged incoming projectiles and left more breathing room between her and them than Storm managed. With force, she swung her arm, rolling the Bowling Bomb along the ground. As it was headed for the Babylon Guardian's bottle, the Guardian himself swung his left arm upwards, flinging the bomb high in the air. With his right arm, he fired another volley of energy balls at the team. While everyone spread out to dodge them, Jet took a large jump with the Cyclone, span around and kicked the airborne Bowling Bomb downwards. The explosive was set off and blew up right in front of Angelus' bottle, severely damaging the Guardian.

"Nice move, Jet!" Sonic complimented the hawk as the Babylon Guardian retreated in his bottle and warped away.

"What did you expect?" Jet smirked. Just then, Angelus reappeared before everyone, angrier than ever.

"I have had enough of all of you!" the Guardian yelled. "I will see to it that you are put down!"

With his right hand in the air, Angelus charged up, roaring a battle cry as he did so. In seconds, he fired several pink energy waves upwards and outwards, damaging everything and everyone in the vicinity. Around the wounded seven riders were piles of debris that were once part of the surrounding pillars. That previous attack really did a number on everyone! But defeat couldn't have been knocking on their doors so soon, could it?

"It ends here," Angelus smirked. "You greedy lot will know your place in this world!" He thrust his arms forward, but before he could begin to charge an attack, he saw two of the seven small creatures slowly pick themselves up.

"You... You think that you can... beat me, huh?" Jet spoke up, glaring at the Babylon Guardian.

"So, you still stand."

"Don't count me out of this," Angelus heard Sonic say, before seeing the two of them on their feet. "You're not really cool, you know?" Sonic continued. "Maybe we should put you down!"

"We shall see about that," the Guardian responded. Once again, he began to charge an attack, but was interrupted again, as he didn't expect to take another wrench to the face. "Gah! What in the name of...?" Everyone around him had risen from the ground, despite each of them holding onto their more wounded arm. "How!?"

"What was that you were saying?" Sonic smirked. "Something about putting us all down? It's seven on one, Angie!"

"Bah, no matter!" Angelus responded. "I will finish this fight!"

"Let's see you try!"

All seven smaller creatures jumped into action and spread out, kick dashing in different directions. Amy went on ahead and brandished her hammer, knocking away and dodging the energy balls that were shot at her. Knuckles and Storm steered themselves into the Pink Rose's turbulence trail, then swerved from side to side once inside, to gain speed and momentum. With enough, the two powerhouses jumped off the edge of Amy's turbulence and high in the air, then smashed the Babylon Guardian's lower body with their fists.

"Alright! We got him there!" Knuckles commented.

"But he's still up and kicking!" Amy responded.

"Wave! You and that fox boy get 'em now!" Storm told his swallow friend.

"On it!" the two of them replied, taking the front of the pack.

Taking hold of the Yellow Tail, Tails twirled his namesakes around and flew upwards, while Wave stalled for him dodging Angelus' projectile attacks. As Angelus tried to swat the yellow fox away, Wave took the opportunity to throw a stick of dynamite at the Guardian. Backing away, Tails watched the small explosion damage Angelus and rushed in with his own attack after the explosion cleared away. Like a fly, Tails buzzed around the Babylon Guardian, twirling around like a tornado with a series of punches and kicks and ending off by whipping him with his own two tails.

"Back off, now!" Jet ordered everyone. "Sonic and I will end this!"

"That's the spirit!" the hedgehog grinned.

Everyone else did as Jet told and moved away, giving the stage to him and Sonic. The green hawk kick dashed to where Angelus warped himself, leaving a stream of turbulence. With the finesse he claimed to possess, he avoided the Guardian's attacks with ease. Behind him, Sonic jumped off the Blue Star. With the board in his hand, he curved up and revved up once more. He didn't see Angelus fire a blast at him, but he dashed away in the nick of time, hearing the explosion behind him.

Like Knuckles and Storm did with Amy's turbulence, Sonic, still boosting in ball form, hopped on Jet's turbulence trail and served left to right, gaining even more speed than he built up initially. In front of the blue ball was Jet, who held out one leg, balancing on the Cyclone with the other and ready to kick the Babylon Guardian's bottle. With as much force as he could muster, he swung his foot at the weak point, so much so, that he gave it a crack on the surface.

"Hah! Take that!" Jet laughed.

Instead of retreating, Angelus lunged for Jet. Before he could grab him, however, he felt an even sharper pain than he had ever felt before. After howling in pain, he turned to see a blue ball speed by and he heard a cocky laugh ring out.

With the breaking of a bottle and with no more energy left, the Babylon Guardian disappeared and the area around Sonic and friends turned back into the blue 'floor' and the darkness above.

In Angelus' place was a large treasure chest. Everyone gathered around it.

"This must be..." Jet began to mumble, but no words could describe what was in front of him.

However, there was no need to speak. This was what he came for.

With Sonic, the two lifted open the chest and the treasure of Babylon awaited them all.

* * *

Sonic Riders had quite the endgame scenario, huh? They gave players a final boss fight, (which was the only boss fight) and you had to hit the Babylon Guardian ('Angelus the Gatekeeper' in the Japanese version) at the bottle three times. In a race. And hitting him counts as completing a lap. Weird mashup between a race and a boss fight, I'll admit...

Unfortunately, folks, all good things must come to an end eventually. Happy late Christmas (or whatever you celebrate, if anything), Happy New Year and I will see you in the conclusion to my Sonic Riders novelization!

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**-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


	13. Final Chapter

**I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.**

* * *

**-Final Chapter: Origins-**

In Sonic's and his friends' moment of amazement, the sounds of blasters being cocked was heard. It, along with an chuckle, echoed in the area. Turning around, everyone saw their favorite evil scientist.

"Eggman!"

"Too awestruck to notice me, eh?" he said. "Now, hand over the treasure!" Instead of claims to defy him, what Eggman got in response was Sonic and Jet turning to each other and chuckling. The looks in their eyes told him that they were up to something. "What's so funny?" the villain demanded to know, stomping around in impatience. "Hand over the treasure, right now!"

"Okay, catch!" Jet responded, unfazed by the fact that Eggman pointed his blasters at him and Sonic. After reaching into the treasure chest, he tossed the item over to him.

At first, upon catching it, Eggman couldn't believe what he was holding onto.

"W-What is this thing? Don't tell me that it's a-"

"Sure looks like it is," Sonic said, interrupting his arch nemesis.

"A... piece of cloth?" Eggman was in a state of shock as he unrolled what was supposed to be the treasure of Babylon.

Indeed, it was a piece of cloth. It did feel silken, however, and the patterns on it were quite elegant. The yellow patterns around the edges complimented the purple inside very well. Before Eggman could inspect what he was holding, he noticed a small slip of paper fall next to him.

"Ah, this looks interesting," the scientist commented, unfolding the paper and seeing writing on it.

"What is it?" Tails asked.

Eggman cleared his throat before reading out the writing aloud.

* * *

_At long last, we have completed our ultimate invention. With this__, our lives will be much easier, without the need to work so hard to keep ourselves flying. However, I fear what will happen if it falls in the wrong hands._

_That is why we have created our defense system 'Angelus' to protect it. It was made in the image of a genie to reflect our wish to keep our invention from anyone who dares try to steal it._

_For extra measure and to keep our secrets unknown, I have decided that, one day, I will seal our civilization under the ground. Only the 'key to Babylon Garden' can unveil it once again. Perhaps our descendants' curiosity will pique, leading to a new generation of Babylon Rogues discovering our land... Only time will tell..._

**_Stolen, the 13th leader of the Babylon Rogues_**

* * *

Jet could only look at the crystal box he possessed. Finally, he knew why it was given to him. All thoughts of relief were interrupted, though, by Eggman's rambling.

"Amazing! This carpet's rich texture is a sight to behold and the way it feels is extraordinary. Something such as this could only have been created in Babylon! Undoubtedly, this carpet will be in high demand from all over the world."

No one could resist the urge to sigh at or look away from Eggman at this point. It was simply embarrassing to see him gush over a carpet, even if it was an ancient treasure!

"However, the question still stands," the mustached scientist said, but with a more negative tone, holding the carpet in front of him. "Did I just go through the trouble of the EX World Grand Prix for this little thing? I set this whole scheme up for technology, not a silly carpet! I can't believe I wasted my time for this piece of junk!"

In utter shock at the truth of the matter, Eggman threw himself on the floor.

With his arms swung back, he unintentionally tossed the carpet back at his nemeses. Said carpet landed next to Tails, who knelt down to take a closer look at it. Upon close inspection, he couldn't help but notice something odd. For starters, there was the genie lamp mark with flames again. Also, when he brought the Yellow Tail over to compare it with the carpet, he found something else.

"Hmm? What's this?" he said aloud.

"Good eyes," Wave commented. "I didn't think that you'd spot it for a second, shorty, but you did."

"Hey, what are you two on about?" Amy asked them.

Wave pointed to the carpet and told the pink hedgehog, "This isn't just a piece of fabric."

"It isn't?" Knuckles piped up.

"No," Tails responded. "Take a look at the material." After everyone around the fox did so, he added, "It's the same stuff we use for our Extreme Gears!"

"You don't say..." Jet spoke, before seeing that his crystal box began to glow. Everyone turned to it, then turned back to the carpet. For some strange reason, everyone saw it engulfed in a baby blue aura and rising upwards.

"H-Hey, w-what's going on?" Storm asked shakily, backing away.

"Hmm... Perhaps this thing's a prototype Gear," Wave guessed.

"A magic carpet, as a Gear?" Sonic questioned her, only to see the swallow shrug her shoulders. As Sonic turned back to the carpet, he said, "I thought magic carpets only existed in storybooks. In fiction!"

"Hmm..." It was Jet's turn to collect his thoughts. Everyone turned to him, knowing that he had something on his mind. "Could it be that we Babylonians were descendants of... genies?"

"Genies?" Sonic repeated.

"Yeah. I don't buy the fact that Angelus looked like a genie because of a petty wish! Maybe Stolen and other Babylonians before him were actually genies. Maybe Angelus looked like a genie to remind intruders who the Babylonians were!"

It was quite hard to piece together, but no one had other leads as to what the ancestors of Jet, Wave and Storm looked like. Regardless, the three rogues agreed among themselves that they had no use for the carpet, despite it being the Babylon treasure they sought after, on top wanting to respect their people. After the carpet descended slowly to the floor, Jet picked it up and placed it back in the treasure chest, but not before seeing and scanning through another note that lied at the bottom. Afterwards, he shut the chest, never to touch the treasure again.

On that note, everyone decided to leave Babylon Garden.

* * *

**At Sand Ruins...**

Standing around the remnants of old ruins, the seven Extreme Gear riders watched Babylon Garden in the sunset. At this point, everyone already left the Egg Colosseum and headed for home, but that only set a more peaceful setting than otherwise.

To Sonic, this adventure was, by far, unlike any other he had ever had. Staring off into the sunset made him and everyone else feel at peace. They certainly needed the feeling, considering all that they went through! Glancing over to Storm, then Wave and finally to Jet, Sonic noticed a certain look in their eyes. People noticed it on him before, the look of desire for adventure.

Jet, especially, had that on his mind.

"So, you're leaving this place?" Sonic asked him.

"Yeah," the hawk answered. "That carpet's treasure chest had more words of wisdom. It said '_This carpet was invented to allow Babylonians to travel all over the world to gather treasure._' Some things never change, huh?"

In a way, this further cemented Jet's plans from this point on. So many treasures were out there in the world, not just from Babylonian culture, but from all kinds of cultures! Travelling to different places for them didn't seem like such a bad idea, did it?

Despite this, there was one other goal he had in mind: take Sonic's title as the fastest thing alive! He may have been trumped in Extreme Gear temporarily, but the new leader of the Babylon Rogues wouldn't back down from one defeat!

"But enough of this friendly banter, Sonic," Jet smirked, turning to his newfound rival. "You better make sure that you're ready when we meet face to face once again."

"You bet I'll be!" Sonic grinned in response.

The two looked into each other's eyes for a brief moment, then turned back to the sky. Would they ever see each other again? While there was the chance that they wouldn't, Sonic and Jet had a feeling that another series of events would draw them together once more.

"C'mon, Jet!" Wave called to him, interrupting his thoughts. "It's time to split!" The swallow felt a large hand smack her back, then turned to Storm in frustration.

"Hey, I wanted to say that!" the albatross whined.

To this, Jet shook his head and sighed, while everyone else around him got a laugh out of it.

"Well, we better get going," Amy said to the Babylon Rogues.

"C'mon, Sonic," Knuckles called to his hedgehog friend.

"We should split, too, right?" Tails added.

"Yeah," Sonic replied with a smile.

Both he and Jet tossed the Blue Star and Cyclone up in the air and leaped onto their respective Gears. The two rode in opposite directions, but not before turning around and kick dashing past each other, their thrust trails forming a cross pattern. Blue faced green and green faced blue. The two speedsters looked into each other's eyes one more time, determined that they would see each other again.

Behind Jet, Sonic's friends boarded their Gears and followed the blue hedgehog, while Wave and Storm hopped on their own and tagged along with their leader. Wave turned to the group behind and winked, while Storm gave them a thumbs up.

As for Jet, he looked straight ahead, a confident smile pulling along his face.

Sonic and friends rode on for new adventures, but Sonic couldn't help but hear one last statement made, like an echo in the desert.

"You may be the fastest, for now... But I'll be back, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

* * *

And so, my novelization of Sonic Riders comes to an end! Just in time, before New Year's Eve, too!

I would like to say a big thank you to those who added this story to their favorites or alerts, those who have reviewed and even those who read just one chapter. I hope you enjoyed the ride and I hope that you stick around for more of what I have to offer. Not just for Sonic games, but for other games, too.

The question remains, however. Will there be a sequel? Will there be a novelization of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity? It won't be my next project, but I want to get around to it someday.

On that note, this has been 'Start Up Your EX Gear!'. Thank you, everyone, for reading. I'll see you next time!

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**-Have a great New Year and stay upbeat, y'all!-**


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